As traditional Yazidi music played and religious sayings resonated Oct. 24, national teams began exhuming a mass grave that held the remains of victims of the genocide against the Yazidis from the village of Kocho, in the southern Sinjar district in the western Ninevah governorate. This area, with the largest Yazidi presence in Iraq and the world, was invaded and controlled by the Islamic State (IS) in 2014.

These graves are known as the “Mothers’ Cemetery,” and are located in the Solagh area at the entrance to Sinjar district. The exhumation process was carried out by a national team in cooperation with the Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and the Ministry of Martyrs in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in the presence of Yazidi figures, representatives of government institutions and the clergy of the Yazidi Spiritual Council, in addition to figures from various religious components in the area.

According to statistics by the Kidnapped Yazidis' Rescue Office in the KRG, this is the 17th cemetery to be exhumed out of the 83 discovered mass graves. The national team believes that this cemetery contains the remains of more than 80 women and children.

After exhuming the remains, the national team transfers them to Baghdad for the required examination procedures, including DNA testing to find out the identities of the victims and match them with their relatives from whom samples have been taken. The remains are then handed over to their families for burial in the special cemetery established for victims of the genocide in the village of Kocho, which contains over 500 prefabricated graves.