Shahab Ahmad, head of education affairs in Shangal/Sinjar, says PKK members have turned a school into their headquarters while the students have no place to study. “While it is the beginning of the school year and we are currently facing a shortage of facilities, especially in the field of education, the PKK has turned one of the major schools in Sinjar into a training ground for its members and refuses to evacuate.” he said.
“Shangal is administratively subordinate to Mosul, and we have informed the relevant authorities in this regard. This school was established by the Kurdistan Regional Government before the ISIS attack and is very large physically. “If the school is evacuated, the problem of educational space in Shangal will be solved because, in addition to being large, it is also very modern. But if the PKK continues to refuse, some students will not be able to continue their education.”
Shahab Ahmad, referring to the growing trend of Yazidi Kurds protesting against the presence of the PKK in the Shengal region, said that “the PKK is not only hindering the education of students, as we have seen many times during the protests of Yazidi mothers, a large number of students have been abducted by the PKK to be recruited as child soldiers.” “There is no information yet on their fate, and the PKK has even threatened the families of the abducted children on any attempts for the media coverage of the incident,” he said.
