Iraqi Lawmaker Pleads for the World to Help Desperate Yazidis

In August 2014, the world took notice when Iraqi lawmaker Vian Dakhil made an impassioned plea for the Yazidi people in the Iraqi Parliament.

The United States and other Western countries responded by helping rescue thousands of Yazidis stuck for days on Sinjar Mountain.

Many had suffered without food and water and some died from the experience. They had been forced to flee to the mountain as Islamic State fighters stormed into their villages, killing men and kidnapping and raping mothers and daughters.

Two years later, the Yazidis are still in need of help. Dakhil told CBN News Christian groups are among those who have responded generously to help.

But more needs to be done.

"The Christian community helped the Yazidi people, but please help them more," she said. "Sometimes people forget what happened."

And the tragedy is still happening, Dakhil says. 

On Tuesday, the Iraqi parliamentarian spoke before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, telling members that 400,000 Yazidis are refugees living in tents and are still in need of food, water, clothing and shoes.

"Still we have 3,500 kidnapped women under ISIS control. Still we have 1,000 boys between 6 to 10 years who are captive in a special place in Mosul. (ISIS is) teaching them, wash the brain of them and teaching them to use weapons," Dakhil told CBN News.

"And still we have 2,000 girls and children, they (have) escaped from ISIS but they need psychological therapy. We still have cities where 90 percent of the cities are destroyed," she continued. "Every building, everything is destroyed. This is the situation now after two years. And nobody cares."

A UNHCR report released this week says the Islamic State is committing genocide against Yazidis in Iraq and Syria. The U.N. statement followed resolutions and declarations passed earlier this year by the European Union, U.S. and Western governments.

The designation requires the international community to take action to protect the Yazidi people.

"We need someone to pray for the Yazidi people, another to help them, and another to focus on the situation of the Yazidis," Dakhil insisted. "We can help them together."

*During a recent visit to Iraq, CBN News Senior International Reporter Gary Lane interviewed Vian Dakhil and her sister Deelan. Look for his story about the two Yazidi leaders coming soon.