‘We’re humans not animals’: Dozens of ex-IS brides and their children desperate to go home
Tens of thousands of women – many of them Western – and once married to Islamic State men are still being held in two closed tented camps in the war-torn country nearly five years after the fall of the extremist terror group
Shamima Begum – who ran away to join IS whilst still a teenager at school in east London – is not the only woman to be effectively disowned and abandoned by her home country.
We found dozens of families who once lived in the so-called IS Caliphate urging their governments to rescue them from the barricaded camps manned by armed guards where they’re now being held in north-east Syria.
Ms Begum, who last week lost her latest legal challenge in London’s High Court challenging the decision to strip her of her British citizen status, opted not to talk to us when we arrived at the smaller of the two camps, Al Roj.
The 24-year-old, whose lawyers are arguing she was trafficked to Syria whilst still a minor, took off when she spotted us, running through the maze of tents to avoid our meeting.
But we found many others desperate to talk after what they say are several agonising years of not being heard and nothing done to help them.
‘We’re humans, not animals’
We spoke to British, Australian, Belgian, German, Dutch and Caribbean women who all insist they and their children are being punished for the sins of their partners and fathers.
Many claimed they’d been raped or tricked into going to Syria and in some cases trafficked. All said they couldn’t escape.
Sky News’ Alex Crawford speaks to a resident from the UK
Most of the Western women and their children are in Al Roj where they’ve been without electricity for the past month and where conditions are brutally tough.
“We are human beings, not animals at the end of the day,” one Australian mother-of-three told us on condition of anonymity because she’s in the middle of a legal process to be repatriated.
“An animal wouldn’t be able to withstand these conditions. My son nearly died last year…and my government is aware of this!”
She went on: “Not just the children but most of the women here are being punished for a decision that was made on their behalf…decisions we didn’t make ourselves.
“And our government, even though we’ve reached out continuously is refusing to acknowledge that their citizens are still here trapped in the camps. Australian-born children are still here.”
Multiple countries saw their citizens travel to the region to answer the IS call to create a caliphate around the year 2014.
The terror group went on to take over huge swathes of Syria and Iraq, imposing a harsh and terrifying version of Sharia Law, carrying out executions and crushing any form of dissent.
The IS fighters slaughtered thousands of men from the ethnic Yazidi group because they view them as devil worshippers – and went onto kidnap thousands of Yazidi women turning them into slaves and brutalising them for years.
More than two thousand Yazidi women are still missing and believed to remain in captivity with IS sleeper cells ten years after IS began their massacre.
‘Let us come back’
One British woman from Leeds told us how she was persuaded to go to Syria by her husband who was from Birmingham but has since died in the fighting which followed. Her seven-year-old son Adam was born in Raqqa, the capital of the IS caliphate in Syria.
“It was a bad mistake,’ she said of her decision, ‘But I want to go back home. There’re no schools here,’ she said, ‘No reading or writing – nothing and there’s no doctors. No, don’t do this to Adam, he’s innocent.”
She too asked not to be named after advice from lawyers but appealed to the prime minister to let her return saying she was prepared to stand trial and face any legal consequences.
“Let us come back,” she begged, “My family, my mum, my dad, my brothers all live in England and I want to come back and face trial there…five years I’ve been here. I am tired and I’m sick.”
She walks with a crutch and is paralysed down one side after the vehicle she was travelling in around Baghouz was hit during the fighting to dislodge IS and she was injured.
We go on to hear her story repeated many times with a range of different nationalities telling us they’d been forgotten or dumped by their Governments. Casandra Bodart, a Belgian national with blonde hair and wearing a t-shirt and jeans told us she realised soon after she arrived in Syria that she’d made a terrible mistake.
“For a long time, I tried to escape from there,” she told us.
“But my husband didn’t want me to because it’s like radical you know in the ideology of the Islamic State (to leave your husband) and he told me, if you try to escape I will kill you with my hands.”
‘I tried to run away twice’
Zakija Kacar told us she lived in Germany for 29 years, had a job and gave birth to two children there before being tricked by her husband and taken to Raqqa.
“I tried to run away two times but they caught me and they beat me – then where could I go? I stayed and then he died after four months and I was pregnant so what could I do?”
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She says she was forced to marry another man she didn’t know or love and give birth to two more children, one in Al Roj.
Her five year old youngest daughter has not known any life outside the fences and armed guards of Al Roj camp.
“I hope they can give me a second chance,” she said.
Her ten year old who was born in Stuttgart has forgotten her German and now speaks Arabic.
Safija wants to study to be a doctor but “here is not good,” she told us, “We are trapped like chickens. I want to go out and go to parks.”
‘My kids have done nothing wrong’
The overwhelming bulk of the camp’s residents are children and a string of human rights groups and aid agencies have condemned the conditions in both camps as well as what they call the arbitrary detention of minors for what their parents might have done.
No-one in the camps has stood trial or being questioned in a court over any crimes they might have committed.
UN experts said in a report last year: “The mass detention of children in North-East Syria for what their parents may have done is an egregious violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits all forms of discrimination and punishment of a child based on the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of their parents.”
In one section of the camp called Australia Street because of the domination of Australians living there, there are rainbows and painted maps of Australia.
One mother from Melbourne called Kirsty Rosse-Emile told us she had two small children, aged seven and four who she desperately wants to take back home.
“My kids have done absolutely nothing wrong. My daughter was two years old when we came here and they know nothing and I’m trying to protect them from everything.”
World
Donald Trump refuses to rule out military force over Panama Canal and Greenland – as he warns NATO to spend more
US president-elect Donald Trump has refused to rule out military or economic action to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland – as he said he believes NATO spending should be increased to 5% per member state.
Speaking at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Mr Trump made a series of sweeping claims on what his policies could look like when he takes office on 20 January.
He said he believes NATO spending should be increased to 5% per member state, while he also declared US control of Greenland and the Panama Canal as vital to American national security.
The 78-year-old Republican also spoke of relations with Canada, as well as addressing his position on the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
Sky News takes a look at some of the key claims brought up during the conference.
NATO
Mr Trump claimed “nobody knows more about NATO than I do”, before adding: “If it weren’t for me, NATO wouldn’t exist right now.
“I raised from countries that weren’t paying their bills, over $680bn. I saved NATO, but NATO is taking advantage of us.”
The president-elect also said members of NATO should be contributing 5% of their GDPs (gross domestic product) to defence spending – the previous target has been 2%.
Donald Trump speaking at Mar-a-Lago. Pic: Reuters
Greenland and Panama Canal
Asked if he can reassure the world he won’t resort to military action or economic coercion in trying to get control of the areas, he said: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.”
“But, I can say this, we need them for economic security.”
He didn’t add any further detail around Greenland – which he has recently suggested the US should own or control – but he said the Panama Canal “was built for our military”.
He said the canal was “vital” to the country and China was “operating” it.
Mr Trump criticised the late Jimmy Carter for his role in signing over the Panama Canal to Panama during his presidency, saying it’s “a disgrace what took place” and “Jimmy Carter gave it to them for one dollar.”
Canada
A day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was stepping down, Mr Trump said he believed the US’ northern neighbour should become the 51st US state.
He mocked Mr Trudeau by calling him “governor” rather than prime minister.
He argued the US and Canada combined would amount to an “economic force” that would “really be something”.
“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Mr Trudeau responded.
Israel-Hamas war
Israel has been waging a 15-month war on the militant group ruling Gaza, Hamas, since they launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October which saw 1,200 people massacred and about 250 taken hostage, many of whom remain in captivity.
Mr Trump said: “If those hostages aren’t back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East.”
Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to Hamas-run health officials in the enclave.
Analysis: Trump’s warning risks becoming less threatening
Ukraine war
Referring to Russia’s ongoing full-scale war against its smaller neighbour, Mr Trump said a “big part of the problem” was Russian President Vladimir Putin had said for many years he did not want Ukraine involved with NATO.
“Somewhere along the line [outgoing President Joe] Biden said you can join NATO,” he said.
“Well, then Russia has NATO right on their doorstep.
“When I heard the way Biden was negotiating I said ‘you are going to end up in a war’ and it turned out to be a war.”
Asked if he would commit to keep supporting Ukraine during negotiations with Moscow, Mr Trump quipped: “Well, I wouldn’t tell you if that were the case.”
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Mr Trump repeated one of his favourite phrases from the campaign trail, “drill, baby, drill”.
On Monday, outgoing President Biden moved to ban new offshore oil and gas developments along most US coastlines.
But Mr Trump, who has vowed to boost domestic energy production, said he will undo it.
“We’re going to be drilling a lot of other locations,” he said.
The public articulation by Donald Trump of a new desired target for NATO allies to spend 5% of national income on defence will surely plunge governments across Europe into crisis mode – not least here in the UK.
Britain presents itself to the world and in particular to the United States as the biggest defence spender in Europe and NATO’s most powerful European military.
Yet Sir Keir Starmer has not even managed to set out a timeline for what he describes as a “path to 2.5%” of GDP being invested in his armed forces, up from just over 2% today.
If the prime minister merely sticks to this pledge, he risks being viewed by the new administration as woefully unambitious and not credible on defence.
Then there is the extraordinary threat by Mr Trump to seize Greenland by force if necessary, even though this valuable piece of territory belongs to a fellow NATO ally in the form of Denmark.
The move – were it to happen – would demonstrate the limitations of the alliance’s Article 5 founding principle.
It is supposed to guarantee that all allies would come to the defence of any member state which is under armed attack.
But what about if the aggressor is also meant to be an ally?
The president-elect also appeared to dash any hope of Ukraine being offered membership to the alliance anytime soon – a core request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Instead, Mr Trump sounded sympathetic to Vladimir Putin’s absolute opposition to such a move.
He said he would meet the Russian president after taking office – reiterating a promise to end the war in Ukraine, though again without spelling out how.
The outbursts came in a lengthy press conference on Tuesday that marked the starting shot in what could be a make-or-break test for NATO – an alliance of transatlantic friends that rose from the ashes of the Second World War.
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European members of NATO, as well as Canada, already took a battering the last time Mr Trump was in the White House – and rightly so.
The US had for far too long largely bankrolled the security of Europe, while the majority of its allies – including the UK – reaped the so-called “peace dividend” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, swapping expenditure on defence for peacetime priorities such as economic growth, healthcare and education.
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From 2019: Was this the most awkward NATO summit ever?
Mr Trump made clear during his first term his displeasure about what he saw as Washington being ripped off and vowed to make Europe take its fair share of the burden.
He even warned member states that the US would not come to the aid of an ally that was not hitting at the very least a minimum NATO spending targeting of 2% of GDP – something they had previously pledged to do by 2024 but were slow to deliver on.
Such language electrified allies in a way that even Putin’s initial 2014 invasion of Ukraine, with the annexation of Crimea and attacks in the east of the country, had not.
Yet, with the threat from Russia growing in the wake of its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, coupled with conflict in the Middle East and the challenge posed by China, it has become clear that this heightened level of expenditure by allies was still far short of what is required to rebuild militaries across Europe that have been hollowed out over decades.
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Mark Rutte, the new secretary general of NATO, set the stage for what is expected to be another push to ramp up investment when he delivered a landmark speech last month in which he called on allies to return to a “war mindset” and “turbocharge” defence spending.
He said this was to counter growing threats, but observers said it was also a pre-emptive response to the anticipated demands of the next Trump administration.
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‘Ukraine needs more arms, less talking’
Either way, it poses a huge challenge for all allies, in particular for Sir Keir Starmer.
He and Rachel Reeves face a choice: change course when it comes to their top priorities of economic growth, hospital waiting lists and new housing and instead invest more in defence or defy what will doubtless be growing demands from the United States to spend billions of pounds more on the UK armed forces – and maybe even leave the country in a position whereby the US would not come to its aid if attacked.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allied militias are committing genocide in Sudan while waging war against the army for control of the country, Joe Biden’s US administration has determined – two weeks before leaving office.
In a statement sharing the designation on Tuesday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the RSF and its aligned militias had “systematically murdered men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis” and “deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence”.
He announced that Washington would impose sanctions on RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and seven RSF-owned companies located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo. File pic: AP
The UAE is credibly accused of backing and arming the RSF – something it has strenuously denied.
When reached for comment by Reuters, the RSF rejected these measures and said: “America previously punished the great African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, which was wrong.
“Today, it is rewarding those who started the war by punishing (RSF leader) general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, which is also wrong.”
The RSF has been fighting Sudan’s army for territorial control of the country since war erupted in the capital, Khartoum, in April 2023.
The ensuing devastation has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis ever recorded – with over 11 million people forced out of their homes, tens of thousands dead, and 30 million in need of humanitarian assistance.
Sudan, Africa
In December 2023, Mr Blinken announced that both warring parties had committed war crimes, but that the RSF in particular had committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
He mentioned this precedent in this latest announcement, adding: “Today’s action is part of our continued efforts to promote accountability for all warring parties whose actions fuel this conflict.
“The United States does not support either side of this war, and these actions against Hemedti and the RSF do not signify support or favour for the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces).
“Both belligerents bear responsibility for the violence and suffering in Sudan and lack the legitimacy to govern a future peaceful Sudan.”
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This comes twenty years after then US secretary of state Colin Powell described the conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, as a genocide in 2004.
Back then, RSF leader Hemedti was heading up a lesser-known Janjaweed militia that was carrying out state-sanctioned atrocities against civilians.
He was not held accountable then, and many wonder if this latest designation will have any impact on the actions of forces on the ground.
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