The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the other parties involved in the Yazidi heartland, and the Iraqi federal government must communicate in order to resolve the Shingal crisis, according to an official from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
In an interview with Rudaw on 12 February, UNAMI’s Deputy Special Representative and Resident Coordinator, Ghulam Mohammad Isaczai said, “I think the issue of Shingal requires a dialogue, a discussion between the Government of Kurdistan of Iraq, as well as the Federal Government of Iraq, and other parties that are involved there.”
UN DRSG/RC/HC, Ghulam Mohammad Isaczai, attended the soft inauguration of Bab Sinjar Housing Complex in Mosul under the project titled “Support to Reconstruction and Peacebuilding of Liberated Cities in Iraq” funded by the Government of Japan and implemented by UN-Habitat. pic.twitter.com/7VUrYRusob
— UNAMI (@UNIraq) February 13, 2023
The official explained that the organization’s responsibility was to support the Shingal Agreement’s implementation and ensure that IDPs returned to their original residences. He also noted that Iraq currently possesses the economic capacity to support the reintegration of the displaced population.
“Our intention at the UN is that we would like to see all the displaced population to return to their area of origin, or to be placed in a new location so that there is an end to the life in camps,” he added.
Since ISIS attacked it in 2014, the Yazidi stronghold of Shingal has experienced instability, insecurity, and a lack of essential amenities. In the Kurdistan Region, there are still some 200,000 Yazidis who left Shingal in 2014, many of which remain in IDP camps with living conditions that are well below the poverty line.
In order to “normalize” the situation in Shingal, Baghdad and Erbil reached an agreement in 2020 that calls for the removal of all PKK-affiliated soldiers from the city. The PKK and its allies have rejected the accord.
The PKK has maintained a presence in Shingal since 2014, when its fighters sought to rescue Yazidi civilians seeking refuge from ISIS on Mount Shingal, in the wake of the terrorist group’s massacres of Yazidi men and mass kidnapping and enslavement of Yazidi women and girls.
The Yazidi population had been abandoned by Peshermerga forces led by KRG leader Masoud Barzani. The Peshmerga had promised to protect the Yazidi community, but confiscated Yazidi weapons and withdrew from the area without notice, opening the way for ISIS militants to carry out the massacres.
Meanwhile, senior sources in the Kurdistan Democratic Party have pointed to the issue of Kirkuk and its oil resources as the main reason for differences among Kurdish parties over the presidency.
The leaders of the two main Kurdish parties, the KDP led by Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Bafel Talabani, are in a tense race to nominate a candidate for the presidency, according to a Middle East Eye report published on 6 February.
Since 2005, the process of dividing power between the three main Iraqi ethnic and religious groups has been for the Kurds to hold the presidency, for Shias to hold the prime ministership, and for Sunnis to head the parliament.