Shafaq News- Nineveh

Political disputes have stalled appointments to key administrative posts in Iraq's Sinjar district and the Nineveh Plains, as the Babylon Movement faces off against the Unified Nineveh Alliance (Tahalof Ninawa) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), a Nineveh Provincial Council source told Shafaq News on Sunday.

The source said the competing blocs were seeking greater control over local administrations, with each insisting on its share of positions and refusing concessions. The blocs also accused one another of attempting to push through candidates without broader political and community consensus.

On October 16, Sabah Al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of Iraq's armed forces, told The New Region that Baghdad was working to appoint a mayor from Sinjar's local community.

The appointment of a permanent district mayor remains unresolved in Sinjar, where ISIS's 2014 assault displaced much of the Yazidi population. The October 2020 Sinjar Agreement between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government called for appointing an independent district mayor, alongside arrangements for other administrative appointments, security, and reconstruction. The agreement remains only partly implemented, despite its aim of restoring stability and facilitating the return of displaced residents.

In May, the Yazidi Cause Alliance opposed plans to relocate the offices of Sinjar's acting mayor and the director of Al-Shamal subdistrict without a broader political agreement, calling for independent Yazidi appointees accepted by residents. Iraqi authorities and the United Nations also reviewed peacebuilding efforts in September aimed at strengthening community participation, stability, and conditions for the safe return of displaced families.

Read more: The long shadow of Sinjar: Twelve years after the ISIS genocide