UNAMI official calls for dialogue to resolve Shingal issue

13-02-2023

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) official told Rudaw on Sunday that resolving the issue of Shingal requires a dialogue between the Iraqi federal government, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the other parties involved in the Yazidi heartland.

“I think the issue of SInjar [Shingal] requires a dialogue, a discussion between the Government of Kurdistan of Iraq, and also the federal government of Iraq and other parties that are involved there,” UNAMI’s Deputy Special Representative and Resident Coordinator Ghulam Mohammad Isaczai told Rudaw's Naif Ramadhan, while attending the soft inauguration of a housing complex in Mosul, funded by the Japanese government and implemented by UN-Habitat.

The Iraqi senior government officials, including Minister of Migration Displaced as well as Governor of Ninewa, were also present. The complex is comprised of nine medium-size residential buildings, including 324 apartments, for approximately 2,300 IDP returnees.
— UNAMI (@UNIraq) February 13, 2023

The UNAMI official said that the body’s role was to support the implementation of the Shingal agreement and ensure the return of IDPs to their original places of residence, adding that Iraq currently has the economic ability 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 Mukhaim [Arabic for camp] or in camps,” he added.

The Yazidi heartland of Shingal has seen instability, insecurity and lack of basic services since the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked it in 2014. Around 200,000 Yazidis who fled Shingal in 2014 still live in the Kurdistan Region, many of whom linger in IDP camps and live well below the poverty line.

Baghdad and Erbil signed an agreement in 2020 to “normalize” the situation in Shingal, which includes the withdrawal of all Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-affiliated forces in the city. The agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies.