NEWS CENTER – The Yazidi woman, Wafa Ali Abbas, now 18, was kidnapped at the age of nine with her deaf and mute sister, who was 13 years old at the time, from the village of Kojo in Shingal by ISIS mercenaries. Wafa was raped by mercenaries at that young age and those mercenaries who raped her killed her fetus while it was still in her womb.
This Yazidi woman was sold 7 times and banned from practicing her language, culture and religion.
Wafa said, “The mercenaries surrounded us in the village school and told the sheikh of the Kojo clan; you have three days to surrender yourselves to us, or we will seize you by force.”
The sheikh said that he would not surrender to them, however the mercenaries surrounded the village and gathered us in the village school. We were separated from each other when we were there at school. They separated fathers, old people, mothers, children, girls and young men from each other.
Then they brought buses and took us to Mosul. At that time my mother and sister were with me. We were screaming but Without avail. The mercenaries separated Wafa from her family and kidnapped her from Mosul to Raqqa and left her in a school, “Every one of them came and took a girl of us. Our buying and selling process began.” With these words, Wafa recalled the mercenaries’ brutality.
Wafa tried to save herself many times, but she did not succeed. About that, Wafa continued saying: “Sometimes they would return the girl they raped. At the beginning of our entry to Raqqa, we tried to escape, but we failed, we were about 70 people. After they brought us back to the school every hour someone came and raped us. In the middle of the night a mercenary came and took my deaf and a mute and deaf sister with her. “I tried to save her but he dragged and took her I don’t know her fate since then.”
Wafa went on to say, “I met my aunt in Deir Ezzor and we lived together. We moved from Al Mayadin to Hajin and then to Al Marashda. There they married me to Abu Ahmed. I was his third wife.”
After that we moved to Baghouz and came from there to Al-Hol camp.I received news that Abu Ahmed was killed, Abu Ahmed’s second wife went to Hawler and I stayed in Al-Hol camp I was married off to someone else by force.He was raping me everyday.
Wafa witnessed many events in Al-Hol camp, and she spoke about the brutality of ISIS sleeper cells, saying: “There was enmity, hatred and war among them. I did not study or leave my tent.”
Worth to note that the second phase of the Humanity and Security campaign launched by the Internal Security Forces with the support of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) resulted in the liberation of Wafaa in the ninth sector. With the latest arrests, at least 139 suspected members of the terror group have been taken out of circulation since the security operation began. According to a weekly report presented on Thursday by the Asayish Command on the operation in Hol Camp, 15 women who are alleged to be leading members of ISIS are among those arrested.
7000 Yazidi women from Shengal trafficked into slavery
ISIS abducted about 7000 Yazidi women from Shengal into slavery in 2014, some of whom are still in the hands of ISIS supporters in other countries. 2700 to 2800 people are still considered missing. Many of the abducted women were initially taken to Raqqa. During the crushing of the last ISIS enclave in al-Bagouz in eastern Syria in spring 2019, numerous Yazidi women and children were freed. However, not all of them identified themselves as Yazidis for fear of the consequences. During the almost five years of captivity at the hands of ISIS, children in particular were indoctrinated in Islamism and the women were told horror stories about the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The rapes also resulted in many children, which makes the situation even more difficult for the Yazidi women.
