In Sharya, under the northern Iraq sky, around 18,000 displaced Yazidis shelter in 4,000 tents. Approximately 3,000 families call the camp their home, and the stench of rubbish hits you well before you can make out the endless lines of fabric structures. It is a devastating place.
Established in 2015 and run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), with funding from the Turkish emergency organisation AFAD, Sharya Camp is home to the ‘internally displaced’ (IDPs). Its inhabitants are mostly Yazidis drawn from the Sinjar region of Iraq, having fled Islamic State’s (IS) genocidal campaign in 2014. The extreme conditions are striking. Temperatures of 40°C and a lack of air conditioning expose poor sanitation; pits of plastic and polluted streams surrounding the camp illustrate the sense of despair.
In August 2014, IS militants had just begun their reign of terror across Sinjar, displacing an estimated 450,000 Yazidis, not including those who were killed or kidnapped. 3 August this year was a grim anniversary, and one that passed with little international commemoration, nor any sign of a credible long-term agreement or resettlement plan. Today, Sharya is just one IDP camp of many that thousands of survivors call home. Another – Kabartu Camp – is home to thousands more.
