Searching for loved ones who've disappeared in years of conflict in Iraq.

Baghdad

Years after the defeat of ISIL in Iraq, thousands of families in Nineveh province and across the country are still searching for missing loved ones. Many disappeared during ISIL's occupation, with some abducted due to their sect or ethnicity, and mass graves continue to be found in areas formerly under ISIL control.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has registered over 30,000 missing person cases nationwide, spanning multiple conflicts from the Iran-Iraq war to recent years. Forensic teams and authorities face ongoing difficulties in identifying the dead, leaving families waiting for closure and the country struggling to come to terms with its past.

Iraqis seek closure for missing loved ones after years of conflict

In Iraq's Nineveh province, the wounds of war remain open. Years after the defeat of ISIL, thousands of families are still searching for answers, waiting for the moment their missing loved ones are finally identified. Eight years have passed since these siblings saw their fathers. They were children then, now adults, but still living in the shadow of a disappearance that stole both their parents and their childhood. ISIL abducted 11 people from my household, including two of my brothers, because we are from the Shaybak sect. After liberation, I contacted high-level officials and others, search detention site myself, but found no trace, no message, no news. In Nineveh, every new discovery of a mass grave brings a fragile mix of hope and fear. Rights groups gather testimony, documenting thousands of people still unaccounted for nearly a decade after the war. Sectarian tension in Nineveh began long before ISIL. Yazidis suffered deeply, but every tribe, every sect, every ethnicity lost men and women, and we still don't know where they are. Even after ISIL, some people were detained or transferred, only to be declared missing again less than a year later. The International Committee of the Red Cross has registered more than 30,000 missing person cases nationwide, with Nineveh among the most affected. The missing caseloads in Iraq are through different eras and through different conflicts. I can give you example that there are families that are waiting for their loved ones from Iran-Iraq war, there are families of the missing persons that are waiting for any information about their family member from Iraq-Kuwait war, and even before actually, under the previous government. Mass graves continue to be found in areas once under ISIL control. For victims' families, each discovery is a painful reminder. This newly discovered mass grave is among several killing sites used by ISIL during its occupation of Nineveh province. Authorities and forensic teams are struggling to identify the dead. For thousands of families, the search for the missing continues. A war that never truly ended until each name is brought home. Behind every missing person file is a family waiting for closure, and a country still struggling to reckon with its past. Mahmoud Abdul Wahid, Al Jazeera, Mosul, Northern Iraq.

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