A decayed corpse of a men who died by thirst in Sinjar Mountains. Found by Ezidi strikers on 21st September 2014
A decayed corpse of a woman who died by thirst in Sinjar Mountains. Found by Ezidi fighters on 21st September 2014

Sinjar (Iraq) – after the terroristic attack from the Islamic State (IS) towards the Ezidis, tens of thousands of them have fled into the mountains to escape from the imminent massacre in Sinjar on 3rd August. Due to the fact that the temperature was about 50° C, even there the people were still in a life-threatening condition. Having no time, the refugees could only take with them what was absolutely necessary and fled only with what they carried on their bodies into the mountains. Arriving there, they were safe only for a brief period. Thirst dehydrated them within just a few hours. Surrounded by the IS terrorists, it was impossible for the people to descend from the mountains.

What happened the following days and weeks on the mountains is devoid any attempt of explanation. Mostly infants, pregnant women and older people have been the first victims of these conditions. Eating leafs of surrounding trees and bushes in hunger, quite a few children were poisoned and died. To give their children’s bodies any liquids, some parents cut on their fingers to give them their blood to drink; Babies died just shortly after birth because of the inadequate supply; In sheer desperation, many women committed suicide by jumping of the mountains because they either lost close relatives or feared to get raped and abused by the IS terrorists. Within just a few days, more than 300 infants died of hunger and thirst.

Died by thirst in Sinjar Mountains: decayed corpse of an Ezidi woman in traditional clothes. Found by Ezidi strikers on 21st September 2014
Died by thirst in Sinjar Mountains: decayed corpse of an Ezidi woman in traditional clothes. Found by Ezidi fighters on 21st September 2014

A tragedy in the 21. Century. Now, that the Ezidis on the mountains could be relieved and the mountain is under control of the Ezidi and Kurdish forces, more and more corpses are being found. Most of them died of thirst. The total number of deaths will be detected only after the complete liberation of the region from the IS terror. What is for sure is the enormous number of victims that the statistics will count. Besides all the other thousands Ezdidi children, women and men who got massacred by the IS terrorists in the villages.

Buried alive, thrown on heap of corpses or buried in dozens of mass graves, the terrorists drowned the ground inhabitated by Ezdidis for thousands of years, in blood –  to the refugees and all the persons concerned so painful that they do not want to go back into their home villages.

ezidiPress