Silvana, a Yazidi woman, was kidnapped ten years ago by the Islamic State. She was found alive. At 30, she finally found part of her family.
A Yazidi woman kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) along with hundreds of others in 2014 has been found alive and reunited with her family members in the village of Kocho, south of Sinjar, northern Iraq , Sunday.
Silvana was rescued in Syria’s Idlib province with the help of the Office for the Rescue of Abducted Yazidis, an organization affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Presidency.
More than 700 women kidnapped
Silvana was just 20 years old when ISIS militants invaded her village on August 15, 2014. Along with five of her sisters and nearly 700 other women, she was kidnapped and rounded up at a school before being separated and transported in different places. “They took us to Kocho village and told us they would take us up the mountain“, Silvana said. “They took our fathers, our sisters and our mothers, then they took my sisters and me to the school in Solagh, where they separated us at night.“
We tried to escape
Initially believing she would be taken to Mount Sinjar, Silvana was transported to Mosul, the former ISIS stronghold in Iraq. From there, she was transferred to Tal Afar, in western Mosul, and then to Raqqa, the group’s former stronghold in Syria. “They took me to Mosul and put me in a corridor,” she said. “I told them I was sick, to take me back to my parents and find them. They took me to Tal Afar and after three months we tried to escape, but they smelled us and brought several buses to take us to Raqqa.“
Over the years, five of Silvana’s sisters have been rescued. However, the remains of two of his brothers and his father were discovered in mass graves. The fate of his mother and another brother remains unknown.
ISIS’s assault on Sinjar in 2014 led to the kidnapping of 6,417 Yazidi women and children, many of whom were subjected to sexual slavery and forced labor. Although the group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, it continues to pose security risks by carrying out sporadic attacks and carrying out kidnappings in the region.
To date, 3,581 Yazidis have been rescued, but 2,590 people remain missing, according to statistics provided by Qaidi, a Yazidi relief coordinator.
Islamic State terrorist group Yazidis genocide
