Iraq to halt work in Sinjar for Yazidi genocide anniversary
Official duties will be suspended on Sunday across Sinjar and the districts of Sinuni and Qahtaniyah, as authorities in Nineveh commemorate the 2014 genocide carried out by ISIS against the Yazidi community.
Governor Abdul Qader al-Dakhil said the decision honors the victims and acknowledges the deep scars left by the atrocities, adding that all government institutions across the province have been directed to observe a minute of silence in remembrance of those killed.
The August 2014 ISIS offensive on Sinjar led to mass executions, kidnappings, and the enslavement of thousands of Yazidis. Kurdish Peshmerga forces recaptured the district in late 2015, and two years later, Iraqi forces declared the full liberation of Nineveh and the final defeat of ISIS.
Many Yazidi families are still searching for loved ones. As of August 2025, official data estimates nearly 2,600 women and girls remain missing. Recovery efforts continue, as authorities attempt to identify bodies found in mass graves across the region.
Iraqi investigators have so far located 93 Yazidi mass graves in Sinjar and al-Baaj, though 32 remain unopened. Fewer than 700 sets of remains have been recovered, with only 243 formally identified and returned to their families.
According to United Nations estimates, ISIS left behind more than 200 mass graves in Iraq, believed to contain up to 12,000 victims.
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