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Introduction: In August 2014, the Yazidi community of Sinjar, in the Nineveh Governorate of Northern Iraq, was brutally targeted by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for annihilation through murder, torture, and the systematic and premeditated use of rape and sexual slavery of Yazidi women. In 2016, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that ISIS was committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Yazidis. Methods: Using current international literature, which includes reviews, qualitative interviews of survivors, and reports from medical and humanitarian actors, this paper explores the short and potentially long-term physical and mental health consequences of the extreme physical and sexual violence and atrocities perpetrated against Yazidi women. Results: Yazidi women survivors of kidnapping, sex slavery, and rape experienced significant levels of physical ailments, chronic pain, and mental health conditions. All women reported feelings of guilt, stress, insomnia, and severe flashbacks. The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ranged from 42% to 90%. Sixty-seven percent suffered from a somatoform disorder, 53% had depression, 39% experienced anxiety, and 28% suffered from dissociation. Conclusions: Sexual violence against women is a common tool systematically employed during wars and genocide. In recent ISIS attacks, intentional perpetration of mass rapes of women and execution of men was a strategy to destroy an entire population.

Conflict settings are often the context of some of the highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Although women are disproportionately the victims of SGBV, they are not the only victims. Indirect impacts of SGBV also impact men, families, and communities. Examining SGBV as only a woman’s concern reinforces the hegemonic gender-binary view that SGBV somehow does not include men, who can be direct victims of SGBV, family members of female victims of SGBV, and/or perpetrators of SGBV. This qualitative study seeks to fill a gap by exploring the impact of SGBV on individuals, families, and communities, and potential options to ameliorate those issues. Data were collected in 2019 from community-based discussions in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Women described being direct victims of SGBV, as well as the burden of being at constant alert to the possible threat of violence. Men talked more about SGBV being perpetrated against women, and the indirect effect on men’s perception of their social husband and/or father role to protect and provide for their family. Taken together, women and men describe three types of violence: sexual violence by an unknown assailant who is often associated the rebel groups or the military; sexual violence from a known assailant within one’s community; and sexual or physical violence within intimate partnerships (i.e., intimate partner violence). Women focused more on community-based solutions to reduce their exposure to violence, while men discussed the government’s responsibility to end the long-standing conflict that has severely disrupted lives. Practically, these findings support the need to specify different types of SGBV, and the opportunity to tailor interventions by type.