All events · Borders by Force Again
ISIS Territorial Seizure and the Yazidi Genocide in Sinjar
2014–2019 · Middle East & North Africa
Displacement
Territory Seized
Mass Killing
Sexual Violence
Abduction (Children)
Killing was the defining act
Displaced
350,000
About 200,000 people, mostly Yazidis, fled the Sinjar area in early August 2014; an estimated 5,000 Yazidis (some studies put the range at 2,100–4,400) were killed and 5,000–10,800 women and girls were abducted, many enslaved; ISIS's broader 2014 advance displaced several million Iraqis and Syrians
Share of the population affected
78%
of the Yazidi population of Iraq in 2014, concentrated in the Sinjar district and the Shekhan area, 2014
Killed
2,100–5,000
direct killing
Territory
100,000 km²
At its territorial peak in 2014–2015, ISIS controlled an estimated 100,000 km2 across Iraq and Syria, home to some 8 million people, before losing all held territory by March 2019.
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What happened
In summer 2014, ISIS swept across northern and western Iraq, capturing Mosul and large parts of Syria to declare a self-proclaimed 'caliphate' that at its peak controlled roughly 100,000 km2 and around 8 million people. On 3 August 2014, ISIS fighters attacked the Yazidi-majority Sinjar region, killing an estimated 5,000 Yazidi men, abducting thousands of women and girls into sexual slavery, and forcing roughly 200,000 people to flee, tens of thousands to the barren Sinjar Mountains where many died of thirst and exposure before a US-backed air campaign and Kurdish ground forces opened a corridor to safety. The UN, the US, and other governments and courts have formally recognized these acts as genocide against the Yazidi people. ISIS was militarily defeated as a territorial entity by 2017 in Iraq and 2019 in Syria, though displaced Yazidi and other communities have only partially returned to Sinjar, and an insurgency has continued at lower intensity.
Parties
The Islamic State (ISIS) seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a self-styled 'caliphate'; its August 2014 assault on Sinjar targeted the Yazidi religious minority with mass killings, abductions, and sexual enslavement, subsequently recognized as genocide by the UN and several national governments and courts.
Disputed
Death and enslavement figures rely on survivor testimony and demographic extrapolation, producing a wide estimated range; while genocide recognition of the Sinjar atrocities is now widespread, accountability for perpetrators and the fate of thousands still missing remain unresolved.
The denominator
Iraq's last full census was in 1987, so the Yazidi population is estimated from ration-card registers, KRG administrative data and community organisations; figures for 2014 generally run between 400,000 and 550,000, with the great majority in Sinjar district. UN investigators recorded roughly 6,400 Yazidis abducted in August 2014 and some 3,100 killed.
The 350,000 counts the displacement of the Sinjar population as a whole, which included Yazidis, Sunni and Shia Arabs, Turkmen and Christians, while the genocide charge concerns the Yazidis specifically; the two should not be read as the same population.
Where the baseline comes from
On the death toll
The only survey-based estimate is Cetorelli et al. (PLOS Medicine, 2017), a retrospective household survey which put Yazidi deaths in August 2014 at 3,100 (95% CI 2,100-4,400) — about 1,400 executed by shooting, beheading or burning and about 1,700 dying on Mount Sinjar from starvation, dehydration or injury during the siege — alongside 6,800 kidnapped (95% CI 4,200-10,800). The authors note the survey undercounts families with no survivors. Kurdistan Regional Government and Yazidi organisations, and figures repeated by UN officials, give totals around 5,000 killed, which is the basis for the upper bound; mass-grave exhumations by UNITAD and Iraqi authorities remain incomplete.
Documented forms of violence
Mass KillingSummary ExecutionSexual ViolenceStarvation and SiegeForced LabourAbduction of ChildrenCultural Destruction
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria's 2016 report documents killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, forced conversion, separation of families and the transfer of Yazidi children to ISIS fighters; UNITAD reached the same conclusions in 2021, and Cetorelli et al. (PLOS Medicine, 2017) estimated that about 1,700 of the roughly 3,100 dead died of starvation, dehydration or injury during the siege of Mount Sinjar.
Formal findings
- UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (2016) — In 'They came to destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis' (A/HRC/32/CRP.2), determined that ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidis, as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes: 'Genocide has occurred and is ongoing' — source
- UNITAD (UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/ISIL) (2021) — Told the Security Council on 10 May 2021 that there is 'clear and convincing evidence' that ISIL's crimes against the Yazidis in Sinjar constitute genocide — source
- Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt, upheld by the German Federal Court of Justice (2021) — Convicted the ISIS member Taha Al-J. of genocide against the Yazidis and sentenced him to life imprisonment — the world's first genocide conviction for the Yazidi case; confirmed on appeal in a decision published in January 2023 — source
Movements mapped
- Sinjar → Sinjar Mountain (initial flight)50,000
- Sinjar → Duhok/Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan150,000
- Sinjar → northeast Syria (Hasakah area)35,000
Countries touched, on present-day borders
Iraq, Syria
Sources
This entry rests only on reference, press or open-edited sources. Treat its figures as indicative and follow the links before relying on them.