{"id":59674,"date":"2021-05-22T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-22T17:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/?p=59674"},"modified":"2021-05-22T17:36:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T17:36:01","slug":"yezidi-child-rescued-from-syrias-hawl-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/npasyria.com\/en\/59674\/","title":{"rendered":"Yezidi child rescued from Syria\u2019s Hawl Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) <\/strong>\u2013 Despite the passage of over six years since the genocide of the Yezidi people in Shengal, northern Iraq, at the hands of ISIS, and over two years since the territorial defeat of ISIS\u2019 last stronghold in Syria\u2019s Baghouz, kidnapped and missing Yezidis continue to surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, the Yezidi House in northeast Syria\u2019s Jazira region followed up on a source which told them that there was a missing Yezidi child living in Syria\u2019s infamous Hawl Camp, which houses Iraqi refugees, Syrian IDPs, and thousands of wives and children of ISIS members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after Erdewan Khader\u2019s father obtained information that his now-teenage son was alive and in Hawl Camp, he coordinated with the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) in the camp, as well as the Yezidi House, to rescue him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stolen as a child<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In August 2014, the Islamic State attacked Shengal, the homeland of the Yezidi ethnoreligious minority, killing thousands, abducting tens of thousands, and displacing nearly half a million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the victims of this genocide was Erdewan, who at the age of only nine was taken captive along with his mother, his three sisters, and one-year-old brother while they were visiting a relative. His father and older sister were spared, as they were in Duhok, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dressed in a black Adidas tracksuit, sitting outside the home to which the Yezidi House brought him after his rescue from Hawl Camp, Erdewan recounts his kidnapping and the years of captivity and wandering that followed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey separated us from our families. Then they took us to Mosul; we stayed there for two months. I stayed for two years moving between Mosul and Tel Afar. Then we came to Raqqa, then they took us to Abu Kemal with the Cubs [of the Caliphate] and the other Yezidis,\u201d he explains, referring to ISIS\u2019 religious and military training program for children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under ISIS<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite having escaped his nightmare only days earlier, Erdewan speaks confidently; his manner of speech reveals an intelligence that is surprising for someone who spent many of their formative years held captive by a terror group with no education or exposure to the outside world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were not able to disobey [ISIS]; we were afraid of them,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey taught us to pray, fast, and read the Qur\u2019an. At first they taught us to pray slowly, then recite a small surah from the Qur\u2019an.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, ISIS shuffled the young boy between several locations, including Tel Afar, Mosul, Raqqa, Abu Kemal, and Hajin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being taught the religious beliefs of the Islamic State, Erdewan and 300-400 other Yezidi children were taught to use weapons and given advanced training. He was forced to wear ISIS clothing and banners, and though ISIS wanted him to fight, he was wounded in a bombardment and could not engage in combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he states that he and his brothers were generally treated \u201cwell,\u201d they were not allowed to leave the school and house where they lived, and sometimes they were beaten by ISIS members if they were not obedient. Some captive Yezidis managed to escape the group\u2019s clutches and flee to Shengal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Escape from the caliphate <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before the start of the final campaign in Syria\u2019s Baghouz which marked the territorial defeat of ISIS, Erdewan was able to visit his siblings every month or two, and his sister even passed him a note with his father\u2019s phone number on it. However, he lost it when he was forced to change his clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the start of the Baghouz campaign in early 2019, during which the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated the area, many ISIS members, including some of Erdewan\u2019s friends in the Cubs of the Caliphate, began fleeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were telling us \u2018if you go to them, they will slaughter you,\u2019\u201d the boy recites what ISIS told him about the SDF. \u201c\u2019They are infidels; do not go to them\u2026they are fooling you into surrendering.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with his friends fleeing, he decided to have himself smuggled out of Baghouz, despite his learned fear of the SDF. He went to Shaddadi, where he stayed briefly before entering Hawl Camp as a visitor and attempting to locate his family there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He ended up staying in Hawl Camp for two and a half years, posing as a Syrian named Ahmed due to his continuing fear of the SDF, until this week, as his uncle arrives to return him to his remaining family members in Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of the Yezidi House in the Jazira region Farouq Tozo stated that while many of the over 400 Yezidis rescued from ISIS by Yezidi House encounter severe difficulties in mentally recovering from their ordeal and re-entering society, Erdewan is intelligent and self-aware despite all he witnessed. He has, however, forgotten the Kurdish language.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until today, Erdewan still does not know what has become of his mother, brother, and three sisters. As for the future, he only hopes to be quickly reunited with his father, his sister, his religion, and eventually his mother tongue.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting by Dilbreen Moosa – Editing by Lucas Chapman<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n