Sema
Sinjar– A new mass grave has been discovered in the Cezire area south of Sinjar, raising the total number of such sites uncovered in the district to 93 since the defeat of the Islamic State (IS). The announcement was made on Sunday by Ezidi human rights activist Tahsin Sheikh Kalo.
According to Kalo, the remains of one victim have already been exhumed and identified, with ongoing excavations expected to reveal more. He stressed that most victims buried in these sites were women and children executed by IS militants during their genocidal campaign against the Ezidis in 2014.
“These graves represent only part of the tragedy,” Kalo said, noting that thousands of Ezidis remain missing more than a decade later.
The atrocities committed in Sinjar — executions, mass abductions, enslavement, and forced conversions — have been recognized by the United Nations and several governments as genocide. At least 5,000 Ezidis were killed, and more than 6,000 women and children were abducted, many sold in slave markets across Iraq and Syria.
Since the liberation of Sinjar in 2015, Iraq’s Mass Graves Directorate, with support from UNITAD and other international teams, has worked to locate and document evidence of these crimes. Despite dozens of sites already exhumed, activists warn that many more graves remain undiscovered, and the process of identification continues to be painstakingly slow.
For survivors, each discovery is both a painful reminder of loss and a vital step toward justice, accountability, and closure for the families of the missing.