Day 2.

While we had breakfast at the hotel, Jan introduced me to our driver in Duhok. Mr. Khudeda, a Yazidi, who used to live with his family in the Iraqi city of Sinjar but was now living in a refugee camp near Duhok. In August 2014, during the course of their second Northern Iraq offensive, ISIS seized control of the city of Sinjar. In the following days, ISIS killed 2,000–5,000 Yazidi men and took many Yazidi women into slavery, leading to a mass exodus of Yazidi residents from Sinjar. About 50,000 of these Yazidis fled into the Sinjar Mountains where they became trapped without food, water or medical care.

Between the 9th and 11th of August, Syrian Kurdish militants from the YPG (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, or People's Protection Units) and Kurdish militants from the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, or Kurdistan Workers' Party) established a safe corridor which allowed much of them to escape to safety into Syria.

When Mr. Khudeda and his family fled Sinjar, he had to abandon his vehicle in the Sinjar Mountains. After finding refuge near Duhok, he enlisted the help of Kurdish militants to retrieve his car, and was thus be able to make some kind of living while in the refugee camp.

Some UN 4WD's outside our hotel. Our plan for today was to drive to West Kirkuk, close to the Iraqi Kurdish frontlines with ISIS, and meet with Dr. Kemal Kirkuki, the Head of Public Relations Office for the KDP, one of the main Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan.


On our drive out of Duhok, we stopped at a Yazidi refugee camp. As it was a Friday, we could not unfortunately locate the camp manager to obtain permission to enter the camp.