Baghdad and Erbil should implement the points of the Shangal Agreement on governance, security and reconstruction as soon as possible, according to the latest report of the International Crisis Group (ICG), published on Tuesday.
The ICG warned that as time passes without an effective mechanism for managing and ensuring the safety of Sinjar (Shangal) Where the Yezidi population lives, the incentives for displaced Yezidis living in squalid camps to return home are decreasing.
In an earlier report, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) stated that the widespread destruction of civilian homes, new clashes and social tensions are preventing two-thirds of displaced Yazidi families from returning to Sinjar.
The ICG stated that the urgent need for full implementation of the agreement became apparent in May, when clashes broke out in one of the districts of Shangal between the Iraqi army and the Self-Defense Units of Shangal. As a result of these clashes, 1,000 Yazidi families were forced to relocate to the Kurdistan Region, and a smaller number to Mount Shangal.
"While such confrontations seem to come and go, they expose issues related to the fate of the Shangal Self-Defense Unit, which, although associated with an external group, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), but consists of Yezidi Sinjars, that is, Iraqi citizens who have the right to self-defense despite on problems with power. Thus, this issue deserves delicate treatment, and not for the army to resort to a hammer every time it notices a nail," the report says.
The Shangal Agreement, which continues to remain unrealized, was signed between the Government of Iraq and the Government of the Kurdistan Region (PKK) in October 2020. Its goal is to restore and normalize the situation in the Yezidi region and eliminate various armed groups that continue to operate in it.
Therefore, the ICG called on Baghdad and Erbil to correct their failure to conclude a deal to ensure the participation of Iraqi armed groups on the ground, consulting with them and representatives of the civil society of Shangal on how to make it work.
The ICG stated that the Iraqi government should appoint an interim mayor, after consulting closely with both the Erbil authorities and the Yezidi leaders of Shangal to identify a suitable, politically independent Yezidi from Sinjar.
Moreover, about security, according to the ICG, the Iraqi Government should abandon its militant approach, directly interacting with the Self-Defense Units of Shangal in solving problems such as supporting local police and the desire to integrate its militias and other members of armed groups into State forces.
"The UN Assistance Mission to Iraq could help these measures succeed by sending international civilian observers and technical advisers to monitor the process," the report concludes.

Mlêtê Êzidî