Many Yazidi girls and women under Islamic State (IS) captivity are reportedly committing suicide after being raped and sold into sexual slavery by the members of the terror group.
According to the Independent, some 200 Yazidis, held prisoner for five months before being freed at the weekend because they were sick or old, report continuing mistreatment of those still captive.
Hundreds of women and children were taken captive by the group during their bloody sweep through northern Iraq earlier this year and have since been trafficked as sex slaves, forced into marriage and imprisoned, the report said.
The plight of the Yazidi girls was revealed after victims who managed to flee told Amnesty International that many young girls killed themselves after losing all hopes of being rescued.
27-year-old Wafa, reportedly said that she and her sister attempted suicide by strangulating themselves with their scarves but were stopped by the other girls who were held with them.
The sisters decided to take the extreme step after the man holding the girls captive gave them the choice to either marry him and his brother or be sold as slaves.
Donatella Rovera, who spoke to more than 40 former captives in northern Iraq for Amnesty International, said IS militants were using rape as a weapon in attacks "amounting to crimes against humanity".
She said that the physical and psychological toll of the horrifying sexual violence these women have endured is catastrophic.
Rovera added that many of them had been tortured and treated as chattel and even those who have managed to escape remain deeply traumatized, the report said.
