As a Yazidi Kurdish citizen, Ibrahim Badal is one of dozens of victims of the PKK’s illegal presence in Sinjar/Shangal. Following ISIS’s attack on the area and the Kurdistan Region peshmerga’s fleeing, the PKK used the power vacuum and settled in this area. Dozens of Yazidi Kurds have so far demanded in various reports and interviews that the PKK leave Sinjar and return their children abducted by the armed group.
In an interview, Ibrahim Badal announced that his daughter had been kidnapped by the PKK 5 years ago. “My daughter was 17 years old. The government was not present in this area. The PKK acted as it wished. It often took girls and boys by force to be trained in Qandil. My daughter Nasima was abducted. No matter how much I begged, they refused. I do not know where my daughter is since five years ago.”
Criticizing the performance of the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi central government, the Yazidi Kurd said: “The PKK is not an Iraqi group, why should it move so easily in Sinjar. I wonder why the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad do not prevent it. Dozens of families like me been victims, I went everywhere to get my daughter back for the last 5 years, but even the PKK does not say where my daughter is, alive or dead. The government should end this situation.”
It should be noted that according to international law related to governmental and non-governmental armies and armed groups, the recruitment of persons under the age of 18 as soldiers is considered a child soldier and a crime.
