Offices belonging to the Yezidi NGO Yazda have been formally closed by police forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq for unknown reasons, Yazda announced via Twitter.

This comes after the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) put an embargo on Shingal – which has been confirmed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) – as part of its ambitions to re-establish its authoritarian rule over the region.

On August 3, 2014, KDP-affiliated Peshmerga soldiers abandoned the Shingal region and its population to the Islamic State, leaving behind a security vacuum that has been filled by other political actors such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

ezidiPress