The PKK terrorist group's presence is preventing the Yazidi community from returning to their homes in northern Iraq's Sinjar region, according to a senior official.
Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis, who had to flee their homes after the Daesh terrorist group carried out an attack on the Sinjar district of Mosul on Aug. 3, 2014, have been living in the camps in northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) under harsh conditions for eight years.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Dayan Jaafar, the provincial director of the Duhok Center for Migration and Migrants and Combating Crisis, said no decision was taken regarding the closure of camps in Duhok.
"Whoever wants to stay in the camps can stay, whoever wants to go is free," said Jaafar.
Jaafar said Yazidis do not return to Sinjar due to concerns that their children could face new threats and disasters brought on by the oppression by the PKK terrorist group.
"Currently, a total of 325,096 Yazidis cannot return to Sinjar and are living in camps in Duhok. Yazidis stay in 15 different camps and they consist of 65,034 families in total," Jaafar noted.
Jaafar underlined that refugees living in the camps are facing water shortages and similar problems.
As international aid agencies focused their attention on aid for victims of the war in Ukraine, much of the responsibility to provide support to refugees in Duhok camps fell on the KRG, he said.
Yazidis await the implementation of the 2020 Sinjar Agreement, with one of the main objectives being the elimination of PKK terrorists in the region, said Jaafar.
Jaafar underlined that most of the recent problems in the district would be solved if the 2020 Sinjar Agreement was implemented.
In October 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the KRG in northern Iraq signed an agreement to preserve security in Sinjar via the Iraqi federal security forces in coordination with the KRG Peshmerga forces.
Daesh terrorists attacked Sinjar, a region with a Yazidi-majority population, in August 2014.
The terrorist group kidnapped and killed thousands of people, including women and children, or detained them in areas under its control.
The PKK terrorist organization managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in 2014 under the pretext of protecting the Yazidi community from Daesh terrorists.
Sinjar has a strategic position as it is some 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Mosul and close to the Turkish-Syrian border.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terror organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
