Report by Marie-Charlotte Roupie

Format: 12 minutes

On the morning of the 3rd of August 2014, the Islamic State Group launched a highly coordinated attack on the Yazidi community, who had little choice but to convert, flee or die. More than 5,000 people were killed in the space of a few weeks, captured men, women, and children were made slaves, and an estimated 350,000 people fled their home province. Since January 2024, between 130,000 and 150,000 people have returned to Sinjar. Baghdad has been pushing for the closure of camps of internally displaced people in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Financial aid was offered to Yazidis wishing to return to their home province. But returning to Sinjar has both a financial and psychological cost for this community, traumatised by the genocide orchestrated by the Islamic State Group in 2014. Ten years on, the scars have not yet healed in this northwestern Iraqi region.

‘Sinjar, the Yazidis’ fragile hope’, a Reporters by France 24’s Iraq correspondent, Marie-Charlotte Roupie, will be broadcast across France 24’s four channels (in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic), and accessible on YouTube, the website france24.com, and on social media platforms.