Kidnapped by Daesh 10 years ago in Iraq, a Yazidi woman released in Gaza

A former hostage, kidnapped ten years ago by Daesh militants in Iraq, was released from Gaza this week. This woman, now 21 years old, a member of the former Yazidi religious minority, was released after more than four months of efforts and attempts which failed given the situation in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree told Reuters , chief of staff of the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 2014, more than 6,000 members of the Yazidi religious minority were killed and thousands more kidnapped by the Islamic State in the Sinjar region of Iraq. During this campaign, which the UN has described as genocide, many were sold into sex slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken to Türkiye and Syria. The ex-hostage, identified as Fawzia Sido, has returned to northern Iraq where she is resting after being reunited with her family, Iraqi officials said.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Iraqi officials were in contact with the hostage for months and passed his information to American officials, who organized his exit from Gaza with the help of Israel – the United States and the Iraq does not have diplomatic relations. The Israeli military said it coordinated the operation with the US embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors”.

Her captor killed

On the American side, a State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that the United States “helped safely evacuate a young Yazidi woman from Gaza to reunite with her family in Iraq,” stating that she was kidnapped from her home in Iraq at the age of 11 and sold and trafficked to Gaza. His captor was recently killed in the conflict in Gaza, allowing him to escape and seek repatriation, the spokesperson said. A US defense official clarified that the US military played no role in the evacuation.

Israeli businessman Steve Maman, known for his fight to free IS sex slaves, said he had an active role in his release. “I promised Fawzia, the Yazidi, hostage of Hamas in Gaza, to bring her home, to her mother, in Sinjar (…) Our team reunited her a few moments ago with her mother and his family,” he declared on October 2 on X, with supporting video.

Of the thousands of Yazidis kidnapped by Daesh in 2014, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, and some 2,600 are still missing.