Kovan, Yazidi woman narrates story of captivity at ISIS' hands with bitterness 

On Sunday (February 4), the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) were able to rescue a young Yazidi woman from al-Hol Camp as part of the third phase of the “Security and Humanitarian” operation launched by the Internal Security Forces with the support of the Syrian Democratic Forces on January 27 of last year.

The young Yazidi woman, called “Kovan Eido Khorto,” is now 24 years old, from the village of Hardan in Şengal, Southern Kurdistan. She and her family, consisting of her father, mother, 4 sisters, and the village’s people, were kidnapped by ISIS mercenaries while they were trying to flee from the mercenaries in 2014.

Kovan was 14 years old when she was kidnapped by ISIS. She was taken with the other kidnappers to an area near the Syrian border, and was held in a school for 9 days.

After 9 days had passed, ISIS mercenaries separated the children and young women from their families. They transferred the young women, after dividing them into groups, to different areas of Iraq, while Kovan and a number of other young women were transferred to Mosul and then to Tal Afar.

While speaking to ANHA agency, Kovan indicated that she was raped by an ISIS mercenary called “Muwafaq,” and he took her to his family’s home in Tal Afar, then handed her over to another mercenary who took her to Mosul.

After Mosul, two other mercenaries nicknamed "Abu Dunia and Abu Abd" transported her to Salah al-Din Governorate, where the mercenary "Abu Dunia and his family" hides.

According to Kovan, an ISIS leader known as “Abu Jaafar (Haider)” communicated with the mercenary “Abu Dunia” and ordered him to bring Kovan to Fallujah and hand her over to him, who raped, beat, and handcuffed her many times.

During this period, Kovan tried to escape from the mercenaries, but they found out about her and started beating and harming her.

Two years after that, the leader, “Abu Jaafar,” handed Kovan over to another mercenary called “Abu Radwan,” who in turn married her to another mercenary called “Abu Hudhayfah.”

The tragedy of Kovan did not end in Iraq. The mercenary “Abu Hudhayfah” headed with Kovan to the Syrian city of Albu Kamal, and during this period, “Abu Hudhayfah” was killed in the desert of the Syrian desert, and the leader “Abu Jaafar” was also killed during that period, so that she could be married to another mercenary called "Abu Asia Al-Jumaili."

With the start of the campaign to liberate Deir ez-Zor from ISIS mercenaries in 2018, Kovn moved to al-Hol Camp designated for the families of ISIS mercenaries, where Kovan explained that ISIS mercenaries were threatening her and all the Yazidi women they had kidnapped with death if they did not convert to the Islamic religion, and they were describing them as “infidels.”

When we asked her why she did not reveal her true identity after all these years while she was in al-Hol Camp, Kovan confirmed that she was afraid because she was exposed to threats from mercenaries.

The kidnapped Yazidi woman thanked the Women's Protection Units for freeing her from the hands of the mercenaries, and called on all Yazidi women kidnapped by ISIS to reveal their identity and return to their homes and families to be saved from the injustice they were subjected to.

She stated that she did not know anything about her family, whether they were still kidnapped by ISIS or if anything had happened to them, but she did not give up hope and hoped to meet them soon.

T/Satt.

ANHA