The body of a 19-year-oldinternally displacer Person IDP was found dead on the brinks of Mosul day following 11 days of disappearance, relatives said
Ziad Issa Khalaf left Khanki IDP camp on February 28, and his body was found on the banks of the Mosul Dam on Friday, March 11, 2022.
Khalaf is from the Khana Sur complex in Shingal (Sinjar) district, west of Moul, has been living for eight years in Khanki IDP camp in Simel district of Dohuk Northern Province. Ziad left the camp on February 28 and never came back until his body was found on Friday.
Qassem Matou, Ziyad's cousin, told KirkukNow, "He was one of my closest friends, we were together constantly. On February 28, he said that he would go to the banks of the Mosul Dam to take some photos. He went out alone, at six o'clock in the evening of the same day. We called him, but his mobile phone was turned off, and we have not found any trace of him since that day, so we informed the security services on the same night."
"Today, March 11, we formed three groups and started searching for him on the outskirts of the Mosul Dam. After hours of searching, we found his body on the bank of the Mosul Dam... There were no signs of beating or wounds on him, it seems that he died by drowning," Matou added
It took Ziyad's family 11 days to search before they found his body.
Pir Alo Kachal, director of Khanki camp, said, "The security services and the residents of the area were informed about Issa's disappearance, but we did not know what happened to him until his body was found today."
The body of Ziad Issa was transferred to the forensic medicine department in Dohuk to investigate the causes of death.
"He was a calm young man, he had no problems with anyone, but he was suffering from psychological disorders, without causing harm to anyone," said Kachal. "We assure his family that we will follow up the case and inform them of the details of what happened."
Khanky IDP camp is home to 14,000 IDPs, majority Ezidis. There are about 665,000 Internally Displace Persons IDP in Iraqi Kurdistan region out of which 30% are Ezidis (Yazidis), shows the figures by the Joint Crisis Coordination Center JCC of Kurdistan Regional Government’s KRG ministry of interior.
Shingal, located 120 west of Mosul, on the border of Iraq-Syria, is home to the Ezidi minority targeted by ISIS in August 2014 and one of the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil.
Seized in August 2014 by ISIS militants whom accused the Ezidis of being “heretics,” Shingal has been the scene of tragedy: a genocidal campaign of killings, rape, abductions and enslavement, amounted to genocide lately acknowledged by parliaments of Belgium and Netherlands.
The surviving community fled to safer-heaven IDP camps on Shingal Mount and in the adjacent northern Kurdistan region where tens of thousands still live in tens of camps for Internally Displaced Person IDP.
Thousands of Ezidi women, girls and kids were enslaved and taken as sex slaves. KRG office for rescue of missing Ezidis says 6,417 Ezidis were enslaved by IS when it took over Shingal in 2014 and 2,700 of them have been brought to unknown destiny.
As the war-torn region has not been reconstructed, lack of security, stability, poor infrastructure and inadequate job opportunities makes it hard for the vulnerable community to return home.
