Kidnapped at the age of ten by Daesh, Layla Eido was able to reconnect with her Iraqi family after a long separation. But coronavirus forces, the young Yazidie has been stranded in Syria since the borders were closed and the reunion is slow. "I count the days that separate me from when I go to see my family again," says the 17-year-old girl, who temporarily lives in northeastern Syria.
She regained her freedom for a little over a year, after being captive of the jihadists until the last hours of the "caliphate", routed by Kurdish forces in March 2019, in the Syrian village of Baghouz. While she was finally going to see her relatives for the first time in seven years, the authorities in Iraq and Syria to close their common border to fight against the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Thousands of women uprooted from their homes
"When we started talking on WhatsApp, they told me to come back," she adds. "But there was the coronavirus, I stayed here. I have no chance. In 2014, at the time of the rise of Daesh, Layla was kidnapped from her family by the jihadists, who attacked the historic home of the Yazidis on the Sinjar mountains in northern Iraq. Like her, thousands of women and girls from the centuries-old Kurdish community have been uprooted from their homes to become sex slaves or to be forcibly married to combatants. Layla too was forced to marry a 21-year-old Iraqi fighter.
Brought from Iraq to Syria, she fled with the jihadists from one village to another, according to the successive defeats of Daesh. Before finally failing in Baghouz, in the far east of Syria, where her husband will be killed in an air strike. When Kurdish forces, supported by an international coalition led by Washington, proclaim their victory in Baghouz in March 2019, Layla is one of the tens of thousands of women and children evacuated from the last jihadist stronghold for the Al- IDP camp. Hol.
Back in touch with his family
At the beginning of the year, she managed to get back in touch with her family, thanks to a Yazidi friend whom she had met at Al-Hol camp and since returning to Iraq. This friend found Layla's parents, themselves displaced in Dohuk province in Iraqi Kurdistan. "I cried the first time I heard my father's voice," recalls Layla. "I talk to them every day, we exchange photos. Pending her return to Iraq, she is housed by a Syrian Yazidi official, responsible for coordinating the returns of ex-captives from her community.
Once the border is reopened, Layla can return home but will then face the challenge of her reintegration. Converted to Islam during her years of captivity, she has today returned to Yazidism. "I am afraid that it will be difficult to readjust to my family, I was small when I left, I lived different traditions," she admits. But in the end, his choice is that of the return. "I want a better life, without planes, without bombardments, without war," she sighs.
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