ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Some 1,200 Yazidi families in northern Syria are facing a new wave of displacement and religion-based persecution, a prominent non-profit dedicated to supporting the minority group said, warning of the risk of another genocide and urging urgent intervention from the international community.
In a late Monday press release, the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF) said the community is alarmed by deadly violence that struck Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods - particularly Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood - last week, as well as by the ensuing wave of displacement toward the city of Afrin in northwestern Syria.
The human rights monitor, which operates in the United States, the Netherlands, and the Kurdistan Region, highlighted “the dire situation of approximately 1,200 displaced Yezidi families,” who are originally from Afrin but “were forced to flee their homes several years ago due to targeted attacks by Islamist extremist groups.”
“Approximately 800 Yezidi families have been forced to return to their areas of origin in Afrin amid the chaos,” FYF reported, noting that the area “remains under the control of the same extremist factions that previously drove them out.”
The watchdog warned that this “forced return” places the families in “extreme danger,” adding that as of Monday, “communication with these 800 families has been severed, leaving their current condition unknown.”
Deadly clashes erupted on Tuesday in Aleppo’s Kurdish quarters after the Syrian Arab Army and its affiliated armed factions launched a widescale operation to seize Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood from the Kurdish Internal Security Forces (Asayish).
The violence left at least 82 people killed, including 43 civilians, 38 government-aligned fighters, and at least one Asayish member, according to a Sunday report from the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
An estimated 150,000 residents have fled Aleppo’s Kurdish quarters, the Erbil-based Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) told Rudaw on Saturday.
An internationally mediated ceasefire came into effect on Sunday, but despite the halt in fighting, videos have continued to circulate showing arbitrary arrests and verbal abuse of Kurdish civilians, while social media users have also shared images and videos of relatives they say have gone missing amid the unrest.