When ISIS gangs invaded the Shengal town in Southern Kurdistan on August 3, 2014, all military forces affiliated to the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) fled the spot, leaving behind defenceless civilian population and abandoning them to the atrocities and genocides of the barbaric ISIS gangs. Thousands of women and children were massacred and thousands more kidnapped by the ISIS.

Heval is a Kurdish child from the Êzidî community. While he himself was kidnapped, his friends and family fell victim to the ferocious massacres of the ISIS gangs.

Heval, who is now 4 years old, was freed by SDF fighters from ISIS gangs only some days after the start of Operation Cizire Storm to liberate the countryside of Deir ez-Zor and Cizire. Heval reached the safe zone among the crowd of fleeing civilians together with a 14 year old girl with the name Sumeya Merhan, who had been at his side for a very long time.

Heval does not know the slightest thing about his former life. What he knows is his name is "Ebdullah", given to him by the gang members. He does not know even one word of his mother tongue and can only speak Arabic.

Sumeya Merhan, from whose whole family only a handful survived, is originally from Shengal's Kocho village and has been with little Heval since the beginning of the tragedy Shengal suffered three years ago until the day they both were rescued from the clutches of the ISIS gangs. Sumeya, able to recall a few things about Heval's background, said that both his parents were killed by the ISIS gangs as they refused to change their Êzidî religion and convert to Islam. Sumeya remarked that gang members used to tell Heval that "unbelievers" had murdered his parents.

Residents freed from the ISIS gangs stated that Êzidîs were forced to abandon their birth religion and convert to their fake version of Islam as soon as they were hoarded in warehouses in Raqqa and Mosul. Those who refused to change their faith, were killed on the spot by gang members. Exactly this is what happened to the parents of 4 year old Heval.

Sumeya remarked that the gang members assigned her to look after Heval and that she took care of him for more than one and a half year, saying: "Heval was always with me, I did not dare to teach him his mother tongue. Heval does not know his parents as he was only one year old when his father and mother were both killed."

After the start of the Operation Cizire Storm to liberate the countryside of Deir ez-Zor and east of the Euphrates River from ISIS, Sumeya managed to escape together with little Heval amidst the crowd of the fleeing civilian groups and to reach the areas freed by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Sumeya said that they had to walk for six hours to reach safety.

Sumeya and the little child Heval were referred to the Women's Defense Units (YPJ), who took them both to the Women's Council of the Cizire Region that will reunite the children with their relatives in Shengal.