Sema
Around 1,200 Ezidi families in northern Syria are facing the risk of renewed displacement and religion-based persecution, a rights organization has warned, cautioning that the community could be exposed to another genocide if urgent international action is not taken.
In a press statement issued late Monday, the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF) said growing concern has gripped the Ezidi community following recent deadly violence in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood in Aleppo, as well as the subsequent displacement toward Afrin in northwestern Syria.
The US- and Europe-based human rights organization said the situation is particularly critical for “approximately 1,200 displaced Ezidi families,” most of whom originate from Afrin and were previously forced to flee years ago after targeted attacks by Islamist extremist groups.
According to FYF, nearly 800 Ezidi families have been compelled to return to Afrin amid the ongoing chaos, despite the area remaining under the control of the same extremist factions responsible for their earlier displacement. The organization warned that this forced return places the families in “grave danger,” adding that contact with them has been lost, leaving their fate unknown.
Meanwhile, violent clashes erupted earlier this week in Aleppo’s Kurdish districts after Syrian government forces and allied factions launched a large-scale operation against the Kurdish Internal Security Forces (Asayish). The fighting resulted in dozens of casualties, including civilians, and triggered a mass exodus from the area.
Humanitarian organizations estimate that up to 150,000 residents have fled Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods. Although an internationally brokered ceasefire took effect on Sunday, reports of arbitrary arrests, intimidation, and disappearances of civilians have continued to surface.
Ezidi residents described the attacks as systematic and indiscriminate. One Ezidi father in Aleppo said the neighborhoods were heavily shelled by armed groups, some of whom were seen carrying the flag of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
FYF also reported that around 400 Ezidi families remain trapped inside Aleppo, sheltering in churches and abandoned buildings under dire conditions, with limited access to food, humanitarian assistance, or safe evacuation routes. The organization confirmed the killing of at least two Ezidi civilians during the violence.
Calling on the international community to act swiftly, FYF urged the United States, European countries, regional powers, and all actors committed to protecting civilians to intervene, stressing that “the Ezidis cannot endure another genocide.”
ISIS carried out a genocidal campaign against the Ezidi community in Sinjar in 2014, killing thousands and abducting thousands of women and children. The United Nations has officially recognized those crimes as genocide, and hundreds of Ezidis remain missing to this day.
Echoing these fears, an Ezidi woman heading a household in Aleppo warned that without immediate intervention, the same atrocities committed in Sinjar — including sexual violence and enslavement — could be repeated against Ezidis in Syria.