We pay ISIL to save Yazidi women, KRG says
İpek Yezdani - DOHUK - ipek.yezdani@hurriyet.com.tr
Hürriyet photos: Selçuk Şamiloğlu
The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of northern Iraq pays money to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in order to save Yazidi women who were kept as slaves, KRG General Directorate of Yazidi Affairs Minister Hadi Doubani has told daily Hürriyet.“There are still around 3,500 Yazidis held as sex slaves and hostages by ISIL. We are trying to work out ways to save them. There are some Sunni Arabs in the ISIL-controlled areas who are cooperating with us. We pay money for the kidnapped girls who ISIL sell and these people buy them for us,” Doubani said in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk.
Thousands of Yazidis were captured and kidnapped by ISIL when the militants raided the Yazidi towns and villages of Sinjar province in August 2014. Information provided by Doubani depicted a gruesome picture of the Yazidis being held as hostages and sex slaves by ISIL.
Doubani said there were some ISIL militants who have turned the “selling and buying of Yazidi women in the slave markets” into a “trade.”
“They sell women in the slave markets, some ISIL militants buy a girl for $50 and sell her back to us for $2,000-2,500. They have almost turned the whole thing into a trade,” he added.
The amount of money the officials pay to save the Yazidis ranges from between $1,000 and $10,000, Doubani said.
“They ask for more money for the youngest girls,” he added.
A Yazidi woman, who was liberated from ISIL, is seen in this photo shot last week by daily Hürriyet at a northern Iraqi refugee camp.
