Young girl’s Aleppo reports silenced
THE online account of a Syrian girl, 7, who captured the world’s attention with her heartbreaking stories of life inside besieged Aleppo, has gone silent.
Bana al-Abed, with the help of her mother, Fatemah, had been documenting her experience of the war, tweeting as she watched the city she loved being destroyed around her.
The Twitter account shared pictures and videos of Bana and her two brothers begging the international community for help to stop the bombing of opposition-held east Aleppo.
“We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world. Bye. – Fatemah,” read the last foreboding message posted on their Twitter page on Sunday.
Shortly after the post, the Twitter account disappeared.
The account may have been deleted by the family for their safety, but some suggested it could have been disabled by the Syrian army.
The Telegraph, which interviewed the mother and daughter two months ago, tried to contact Fatemah by phone but had no response.
Last week, Fatemah wrote that she was worried that the army would target her and her family because of the tweets.
A week ago, she informed their 100 000-odd followers that the family’s house had been bombed and posted a picture of Bana covered in dust.
“Tonight we have no house, it’s bombed and I got in rubble. I saw deaths and I almost died,” she wrote.
“Under heavy bombardments now. Please keep praying for us.”