Menu  
Close  
  • Who we are
  • Our work
  • News & Analysis
  • Events
  • Library
Accessibility options
Search the site

No vaccination outlet on Mount Shingal (Sinjar)

Category: News By: Ammar Aziz Posted on: February 24, 2022

Nineveh, 2019: Sardasht camp for the Ezidi IDPs at Mount Shingal. Photo by KirkukNow.

Shukur Badal is determined to get a Covid-19 jab as he has tasted the bitterness of infection with the Coronavirus, but what frustrates him is the distance of the vaccination centers from the place where he lives.

“I want to receive the first and second doses of the Corona vaccine inside the camp,” says Shukur, 45, who recovered from Covid infection three months ago.

Shukur and the rest of his family have not been inoculated yet, not because they reject it or have doubts and concerns, rather “because the nearest vaccination center is half an hour away from us by car, there is no vaccination center in Mount Shingal, neither inside the camp nor outside it.”

The nearest vaccination center from Mount Sinjar is located in the center of the Snuny sub-district, north of the mountain, in Shingal (Sinjar) district, more than 15 kilometers away.

“The financial conditions of 80% of the displaced are poor, so they cannot go to the Snuny and afford for the transportation costs (the cost of transporting a private vehicle from the IDP camp to the Snuny district is 50 thousand dinars $33), or go to another place to receive the vaccine,” says Badal.

Beside poor healthcare and the lack of a vaccination outlet, IDPs of Mount Shingal complain about poor living conditions amid absence of aid by the state, local and international NGOs.


Nearest vaccination center is in Snuny sub-district, 15 km driving from Mount Shingal.

After the attacks of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS in 2014, most of the Ezidis of Shingal district, 120 km west of Mosul, took shelter in Mount Shingal, and 1,200 displaced families are still residing in the camps of Mount Shingal and Sardasht, according to statistics obtained by KirkukNow from the administrations of the camps.

When ISIS invaded Mosul and took large swathes of Iraq in 2014, thousands of Peshmerga (Kurdish fighter) and Iraqi military and security forces withdrew without resistance.

Taking advantage of this security gap, guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party PKK, fighting Turkey since 1980s and holding territories in Iraq, moved into the Shingal and opened a safe corridor for people fleeing from ISIS by establishing a defense-line on Mount Shingal and from there to IDP camps in Duhok Northern province.

The IDPs on the mountains still prefer to stay there instead of return to war-torn Shingal which lacks basic public services and stability due to the conflict between armed groups.

Ali Shaabo, director of Sardasht camp, said, “The Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement has stopped dealing with us for more than a year, so the aid has stopped and no one cares about us, and no vaccination center has been opened in the camp.”

In 2020, the Iraqi government suspended the aid it was sending to the IDPs of Mount Shingal such as food, fuel and household needs, given that in that year it had decided to close the camps for the displaced throughout Iraq, with the exception of the Kurdistan Region. So far, 51 camps for IDPs have been closed, except for Al-Jada’a camp, south of Mosul, center of Nineveh Province.

“Four months ago, one of the mobile vaccination teams from the Nineveh Health Directorate arrived at Mount Shingal but the mobile team stayed one day. I don’t know how many people had the opportunity in that short period to receive the vaccine dose, at the present time, those who wish to receive the vaccine are forced to go to the Snuny district.”

He added that despite the absence of a vaccination center in the camp, the percentage of vaccinated among the displaced is not low since “up to 50% were vaccinated”, given that some of them serve in the military and security corps and, according to the government’s decision, they are obligated to receive the vaccine.

According to the statistics of the two camps located in Mount Sinjar, infections with the Coronavirus have been recorded among 300 families, and seven people with Corona have died since the outbreak of the pandemic.

residents of these two camps refuse to receive the vaccine

Local health officials deny allegations of the camp residents, arguing they are ready to send mobile teams if the residents are willing to be vaccinated.

Jamal Hussein, director of Shingal health department, said they have sent mobile vaccination teams twice to Mount Shingal in coordination with one of the organizations, “but the residents of these two camps refuse to receive the vaccine, in both times only 150 people received the vaccine.”

Hussein pledged that if the camp administrations send the names of the displaced, they will send other mobile teams to the area.

In Sinjar district, there are 11 vaccination centers against Covid-19, which have so far given 67,000 vaccine doses to citizens, most of which were Pfizer-BioNTech over 48,000 doses, followed by Sinopharm and then AstraZeneca vaccine, according to the data obtained by KirkukNow from health authorities in the region.

This comes while the population of Sinjar district exceeds 334,000 people – according to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning statistics for 2019 – but some of the displaced have not yet returned to their homes due to the devastation caused by the ISIS war in their areas.

The Ezidis constitute 30% of the total 664,000 IDPs in the Kurdistan Region, most of whom are from Shingal, according to the statistics of the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.

“We launched awareness campaigns and explained to the displaced people in Mount Shingal the importance of taking the vaccine, but they do not want to vaccinate themselves”, at a time when follow-ups by KirkukNow showed that many residents of both camps are ready to receive the vaccine if a vaccination center is opened.

Mount Shingal, a vast area in western Nineveh province close to the border between Iraq and Syria, and home to dozens of ancient villages and religious sites.

Video: An IDP residing in Mount Shingal talks about the camp’s lack of a vaccination center and the difficulties they face in obtaining vaccine doses.

Director of Shingal General Hospital, Dilshad Ali Abdullah, told KirkukNow, “The displaced people residing in the two camps can visit our centers in the middle of Sinjar district and Snuny district. All they need to get a dose of the vaccine is to bring an Iraqi citizenship certificate.

Mount Shingal is located more than 30 kilometers north of the district center, and it takes about one hour to drive by car.

Local NGOs also shared interest in arranging a mobile health team to inoculate IDPs against Covid.

We are ready to provide assistance to any party that intends to deliver vaccines to the IDPs of Mount Shingal

Mikael Ibrahim Eido, Director of Dareen Community Development Organization in Shingal, said, “We have a group of volunteers and are ready to provide assistance to any party that intends to deliver vaccines to the IDPs of Mount Shingal through government or organizations’ mobile teams, but so far no one has approached us.”

In 2018, IDPs set up electricity power transmission with help of the donors, but they still suffer from scarcity of drinking water, especially during the summer, while in harsh winters they strive for kerosene to use for heating.

“Working in Sardasht camp and Mount Sinjar camp is very difficult, because some parties impede the delivery of aid to them (without referring to a specific party). Five months ago, with the help of another organization, we tried to deliver 500 aid baskets to the camp residents, but they prevented us from doing so, so we distributed them among IDPs in Dohuk,” Michael says,

Shingal district is located 120 km west of Mosul and administratively follows the Nineveh province, but the district is one of the disputed areas between the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG and the Federal Government. ISIS militants overran the war-torn district from August 3, 2014, up to November 13, 2015.

This article was originally published on KirkukNow. This article can be viewed in Arabic, Kurdish or Turkish via KirkukNow

Related content

News
IDPs in Iraq reluctant to receive Covid-19 vaccines

Kifri, March 2021: a displaced woman working in an agricultural field in one of the villages of the district. Photo by Laila Ahmed. Part of…

VIEW THIS RESOURCE
Case Study
11 Ezidi women survivors stealthily unite with 17 children

An Ezidi kid in traditional attire attending a ceremony in the village of Kojo, Shingal district in February 2021 for the burial of remnants of…

VIEW THIS RESOURCE
Video
KirkukNow proudly published its first booklet “Kaka’i in the Time of Corona”

This is a video of the launch of KirkukNow's booklet, "The Kaka'is in a Time of Corona", collecting articles and stories about the experiences of…

VIEW THIS RESOURCE
Back to top
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of use
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy & cookies
  • Contact

[email protected]

CREID team
Institute of Development Studies
Library Road
University of Sussex
Falmer BN1 8RE
East Sussex, United Kingdom

Sign up to our newsletter

Our mailing list is managed by
Institute of Development Studies

© 2023 CREID. Made by Surface Impression.



These options can change the way this website looks, which may help you to use it more easily.

Accessibility options


  •   Text options

Text options

Standard text

Standard text size

Large text

Large text size

Extra large text

Extra large text size