#WhereisBana: Aleppo's seven-year-old Bana Alabed disappears from Twitter
Seven-year-old Bana Alabed captured hearts when she started tweeting about the daily horrors in eastern Aleppo - but now her followers fear for her safety after her Twitter account disappeared.
2 min read
05 Dec, 2016
Fears grow for Syrian schoolgirl Bana tweeting from Aleppo [Twitter]
Her messages to the outside world documenting the horrors, hunger and hopes of the Syrians under siege in Aleppo captured the hearts of tens of thousands of Twitter followers.
From reading with her siblings to witnessing her friends buried under rubble of bombed buildings, seven-year-old Bana Alabed - with the help of her mother Fatemah - gave a unique and heartbreaking view of regime-besieged eastern Aleppo.
But earlier on Sunday as Assad's army pushed deeper into rebel-held parts of the city, the battle seemed to have reached her doorstep.
A foreboding last tweet from Bana read: "We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world."
A few hours later, her Twitter account was deleted without explanation.
Now her followers are fraught with worry over the fate of Bana and her family, using the hashtag #WhereisBana to raise awareness of her plight.
From reading with her siblings to witnessing her friends buried under rubble of bombed buildings, seven-year-old Bana Alabed - with the help of her mother Fatemah - gave a unique and heartbreaking view of regime-besieged eastern Aleppo.
But earlier on Sunday as Assad's army pushed deeper into rebel-held parts of the city, the battle seemed to have reached her doorstep.
A foreboding last tweet from Bana read: "We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world."
A few hours later, her Twitter account was deleted without explanation.
Now her followers are fraught with worry over the fate of Bana and her family, using the hashtag #WhereisBana to raise awareness of her plight.
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— Hayley Davidson (@hayleyljordan) December 4, 2016" style="color:#fff;" class="twitter-post-link" target="_blank">Twitter Post
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Bana's messages to her more than 100,000 followers had become more desperate over the last week as the regime bombardment intensified.
Last Sunday, Bana told the world: "Tonight we have no house, it's bombed and I got in rubble. I saw deaths and I almost died."
"Last message - under heavy bombardments now, can't be alive anymore. When we die, keep talking for 200,000 still inside."
As parts of Aleppo return to government control, Amnesty International has warned of the potential for revenge attacks, arbitrary detention, torture, harassment, and kidnappings against people formerly living in opposition areas.
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