Yazidi Survivors to Return to New Village
- Iraq's Yazidi community leaders plan to build a new village for survivors of an Islamic State massacre.
- The village aims to house displaced Yazidis who were victims of one of the bloodiest massacres committed by the extremist group.
- This initiative hopes to encourage survivors to return and rebuild their lives in a safe environment.
KOCHO, Iraq (AP) — A decade after the devastating massacre of Yazidis by Islamic State militants, survivors are preparing to return to their homeland. On Thursday, community leaders announced plans for an internationally funded new village, New Kocho, aimed at housing those displaced during one of the bloodiest attacks against the Yazidi minority. On August 15, 2014, IS militants killed hundreds in Kocho, abducting 1,027 of the 1,470 residents, with only 75 managing to escape, according to a report from the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. The initiative, supported by the International Organization for Migration, the U.N. Development Program, and Nadia’s Initiative—founded by Yazidi survivor Nadia Murad—aims to provide essential housing and infrastructure to encourage the return of displaced Yazidis. The situation in Sinjar remains dire, with significant destruction, limited funding for rebuilding, and various armed groups competing for control. Despite IS's defeat in Iraq in 2017, only 43% of the over 300,000 displaced individuals from Sinjar have returned as of April this year. Currently, 133 displaced families have expressed willingness to settle in New Kocho Village, which will feature parks, marketplaces, health facilities, and recreational spaces. Survivors like Alyas Salih Qasim, who has lived in a displacement camp, are eager to return but find the prospect of returning to an empty village daunting. Many survivors still harbor fears of IS, prompting the new village's location to be distanced from the old site, closer to the mountains where Yazidis sought refuge during the attacks.