WOMAN LEAVES SYRIA AFTER TWO YEAR ‘KIDNAP’ ORDEAL

AFP, 02ND DECEMBER,2018-A 54-yearold Argentinian woman who was lured into war-wracked Syria two years ago on a marriage promise was finally on her way home on Saturday, a Syrian rebel official said.

History teacher Nancy Roxana Papa had accepted the invitation of a Syrian man she had met online three years earlier and travelled to Turkey in 2016, before entering Syria.

“She returned to Turkey on Saturday after the required legal documents... were completed” for her entry into Turkish territory, said Bassam Sahiouni, an official from the local rebel authority in Idlib province.

On October 30, the “Salvation Government” -- set up in rebel-held Idlib by the Hayat Tahrir al-sham (HTS) jihadist group -- handed Papa over to the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a Turkish non-governmental organisation, at the Bab al-hawa border post.

She then had to remain in Syria for over a month to await completion of administrative and legal procedures for her repatriation.

The Argentinian teacher had appeared on October 30 at a news conference organised by HTS at the border, where she thanked her country’s diplomatic services, the Turkish authorities and the “Salvation Government”.