Mosul: For the people of Iraq, the atrocities they suffered at the hands of the Daesh group may be in the past, but the painful memories endure.

Their witness testimony is currently being preserved for historical purposes by a research project. Omar Mohammed, the creator of the Mosul Eye initiative, became well-known during the Daesh regime for bravely tweeting updates from inside the city while it was under jihadist control.

He wants to make sure that nothing is forgotten years from now. "I felt the need to include all the people, to record our history in their own voice, when I was in Mosul recording everything myself," he said.

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Umm Mohammed, a 55-year-old grieving mother, is one of those who has spoken with the non-governmental organisation about their experiences with terror, suffering, and loss.

One night in 2015, the extremists came for her family and abducted her son Ahmed, a 27-year-old construction worker. Then, Mohammed, who was 10 years younger than him, made a crucial decision: he opted to join the ranks of Daesh with the audacious goal of tracking down and freeing Ahmed.

Umm Mohammed recalled, her hair hidden by a dark scarf, "I told him: 'My son, don't join them. It's none of your business, he said. My brother will be coming over. I'm going to visit the prisons. Mohammed "never came back," the elderly woman said with sadness in her voice.

Both are assumed to be among the numerous people who died as a result of the group's self-declared "caliphate," which spanned large portions of Iraq and Syria.

The jihadists may have believed that Mohammed "was not one of them," according to Umm Mohammed. He must have been perceived as a spy by them.

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Speaking about those difficult times for the Mosul Eye project years later brought up a range of feelings for Umm Mohammed, but ultimately had a cathartic effect.

Mosul Eye has trained 10 students to conduct and film interviews, mostly in Mosul, but testimonies have also been gathered from people originating from other parts of Iraq, thanks to funding from the US Agency for International Development. The 70 witnesses' youngest are only 10 years old. Some people are in their 80s. Age 104 is the oldest.

The video will be preserved for use by researchers and future generations at the group's archives at Mosul University and George Washington University in the US capital. According to Mosul Eye's Mohannad Ammar, "We wanted to show the world how the people of Mosul overcame this experience."

Muslim Hmeid, a 27-year-old law student, is another witness. In 2014, his Sunni Arab family lived in Sinjar for five months under Daesh rule before leaving.

The "bloody first week," in particular, is permanently etched in his memory. He painfully recalled how Daesh targeted the Yazidi minority in the area because the extremists viewed their non-Muslim religion as heretical.

Hmeid recalled helplessly watching as the jihadists arrived and loaded Yazidi women and girls into lorries. Once, he said, "I saw two or three trucks full of women." "And a few men, but mostly young women, maybe between the ages of 17 and 30,"

Whole Yazidi villages were destroyed, and many people died as a result of atrocities that the United Nations and courts in several nations now regard as acts of genocide. Men were killed, women were made into sexual slaves, and "those who could fled into the mountains," according to Hmeid.

"Seeing such a tragedy befall your neighbours and not being able to intervene... We were devastated," Hmeid said. In terms of psychology, we were devastated.

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The family fled to Turkiye but later made their way back to Iraq because three of his brothers were serving in the military and were on the Daesh kill list.

We reopen wounds by discussing these subjects, claimed Hmeid. However, "the next generations must know exactly what happened," the father of two children emphasised.