Enschede, Netherlands (AINA) -- Thirty Assyrians in Enschede have gone on a hunger strike to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in North Iraq and to protest the genocide directed against Assyrians, Yazidis and other minorities by the Islamic State in Iraq (ISIS). The hunger strike follows a silent march which was held on August 3. The hunger strike was organized by a coalition of 13 Assyrian organizations in the Netherlands.

Enschede, located on the border with Germany, is home to 30,000 Assyrians.

Assyrians of the Netherlands are calling on Frans Timmermans, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to recognize there is genocide occurring in North Iraq, send humanitarian aid, and to support a Safe Haven for the Assyrian population in the Nineveh Plain of north Iraq.

ISIS has driven 200,000 Assyrians and 150,000 Yazidis from their homes and villages in North Iraq. It has destroyed or occupied all churches in Mosul, looted and plundered entire Assyrians towns and killed thousands of Yazidis and Assyrians.

See Timeline of ISIS in North Iraq.