Zehra Doğan/JINHA

SHENGAL – Displaced Êzîdî women and children living on Mount Shengalsay they face increasing health problems due to the shortage of water and food.

Daesh gangs launched their attack on Shengal August 3^rd, abducting thousands of Êzîdî women and children and slaughtering men. Today, in spite of continuing Daesh activity in the region, around 10,500Êzîdîs live in a camp on the slopes of Mount Shengal. The self-defense resistance units Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) and Women's Defense Units-Shengal (YPJ-Shengal) have organized the self-defense of the community.

A five-year-old camp resident named Şirin Said described the flight to the camp from her mother's lap. "They killed our relatives. We ran to the mountains with the ones who were left. The ones who ran in front were saved. The rest died."

YPG/YPJ forces first opened a safety corridor to the city of Dêrik, across the border in Rojava, within days of the Daesh attacks to evacuate Shengal residents. Thousands of residents fled to the mountains, the only place safe from Daesh; thousands more, including women escaped from Daesh captivity, have flocked to the camp since then. Ongoing harrying Daesh forces make the maintenance of the corridor a serious problem.

Shengal residents say their biggest need is water, which can only come in via the corridor every few days.Residents say the capacity to drill for groundwater would be lifesaving. Children regularlydrink water that has been exposed to the air for dangerous lengths of time.

"I hope that God does not forgive the people who did this to us," said 12-year-old Kismet Xidir. She and her 17-year-oldsisterHasretset out early in the morning every day to gather brushwood to stoke the tandoor ovens that supply the camp's bread.

"Our life is really bad. Everything is bad. I want to go back home," said Kismet. "I work every day in the mud until late at night. The ones who don't work die of hunger. I'm not strong enough to do anything but gather brush and carry water." She said that there needed to be immediate aid for the residents.

"I hope we can be together with all the Êzîdîs again," saidHasret, her older sister. "I'm here so that I can experience that again. I will keep on resisting."

Hadisa Reşo, a mother of six living on the mountain, says keeping warm in the plastic nylon tents is a problem all its own. The extreme cold means they can rarely wash and the majority of the children are sick. Obtaining baby food for her two-year-old is nearly impossible.

"But we aren't thinking of leaving our mountains. The moment we leave gangs will fill this place," she said. "We won't allow that to happen."

"When Daesh attacked, we headed to our mountains and resisted. We're leading an honorable struggle here, but unfortunately there's not enough support for us," said Sêve Mahmud, 40.The cold nights and the lack of any doctors mean that the smallest illnesses quickly become life threatening here. Sêvê says that a delegation of doctors to research health conditions would be a first step.

HenaBapi, a mother of three who watched her husband's throat cut by Daesh fighters, says she doesn't believe in living anymore. "Is this what you call life?" she asked. She called for immediate intervention to end the Daesh attacks.

45-year-old KamilaHecisays life is hard with no food, water or gas.

"But we didn't give up our land and we won't give it up," she said. "We will get revenge on these murderers on behalf of Ezidxan. Thousands of women have been raped. Children's bones are lying in the road. We want our revenge."

(fk/cm)