Iraq’s Yazidis return to a healthcare crisis
Sinjar, in northeast Iraq, made headlines for the 2014 massacre, enslavement, and displacement of its Yazidi people by militants from the so-called Islamic State. Thousands have since returned to the shattered town, but they are struggling with a lack of basic services, especially medical care. Patients queue in a dingy corridor in what is left […]Sinjar, in northeast Iraq, made headlines for the 2014 massacre, enslavement, and displacement of its Yazidi people by militants from the so-called Islamic State. Thousands have since returned to the shattered town, but they are struggling with a lack of basic services, especially medical care.
Patients queue in a dingy corridor in what is left of Sinjar General Hospital to see 27-year-old Hussein Rashu, who was until recently its sole doctor. Hundreds of Yazidis seek treatment here every week, many suffering from complaints induced by ongoing shortages of food, clean drinking water, electricity and heating, and from living in makeshift accommodations.
“I see everyone – men, women, and children – and deal with all [sorts of] cases because there’s no one else,” explained Doctor Rashu, who qualified in 2014 and can offer only the most basic diagnoses and prescriptions.
