Yazidis who have been staying in camps in South Kurdistan since the ISIS onslaught on their settlement, Shengal, on 3 August 2014, are returning home. The number of families returning to Shengal is increasing gradually. 

59 of such families, who had been living in the Şarya Camp in Duhok since the ISIS aggression, have returned to Shengal in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

One of the returnees is Bedel Rebo Hüseyin, who came to Shengal today to go back to the town of Siba Şêx Xıdır.

Expressing his joy over his return home, Hüseyin said he believed that other displaced people from Shengal would also come back to their land.

Shengal (Sinjar) is the last contiguous settlement area of the Yazidi community. Thousands of Yazidis were murdered and thousands of women and children were taken prisoner in the 3 August 2014 onslaught on Shengal by ISIS militants. While ISIS gangs began murdering Yazidis in Shengal, the Peshmerga left, leaving the Yazidis behind. HPG-YJA Star and YPG-YPJ fighters came to the Yazidi people's aid in the face of ISIS aggression.

After months of resistance, the fighters who saved the Yazidi people from a larger genocide liberated Shengal. After the liberation of the city, the HPG and YPG/YPJ subsequently withdrew in 2017. People who returned to their land after Shengal's independence reformed, established defensive units and built their institutions.

UN bodies and the European Parliament have recognised ISIS crimes as genocide, as have Armenia, Australia, the US House of Representatives, the Scottish Parliament and the German Parliament (Bundestag).