Seven-year-old ‘Syrian Twitter girl’ Bana evacuated from Aleppo

HATAY - Agence France Presse

Seven-year-old Bana Alabed, who has attracted the world’s attention while tweeting from war-torn Aleppo, was evacuated from the divided Syrian city of Aleppo on Dec. 19, a Turkish NGO announced on social media.

“This morning @AlabedBana was also rescued from #Aleppo with her family. We warmly welcomed them,” the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH) wrote on its Twitter account, sharing an İHH aid worker’s selfie picture with the girl.

Alabed’s account which has hundreds of thousands of followers, has frequently posted photos of the destruction in Aleppo including her rubble-littered street, while people have tweeted messages of support and concern, they became increasingly worried for her life when tweets became less frequent.

Alabed’s last tweet from her mother, Fatemah, before the evacuation made an appeal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and called to put a fragile cease-fire back on track after frequent delays.

“Dear @MevlutCavusoglu & @RT_Erdogan please please please make this ceasefire work & get us out now. We are so tired. -Fatemah #Aleppo,” Fatemah tweeted to Turkish politicians. 

“Difficulties on the ground won’t deter us, sister. Rest assured that we are doing all to get you and thousands of others to safety,” Çavuşoğlu responded in a tweet on Dec. 19. 

An İHH spokesman confirmed to the AFP that the young girl was among the first batch of evacuees on the morning of Dec. 16 in the Rashidin region.

“She is likely to be transferred to the camps in Idlib province,” he said.

Meanwhile, Çavuşoğlu later said Bana would be brought to Turkey with her family.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Dec. 14 had replied to a tweet shared from the account of Alabed.

“Sir @MevlutCavusoglu we had hope yesterday, but what’s happening now? Please help us now. No more time left. Thank you. - Fatemah #Aleppo,” a tweet posted by Bana’s mother said on the collapse of a cease-fire.

“Keep your hope my sister. Turkey hears your call. We work hard to end the nightmare you and many children in Syria are going through,” Çavuşoğlu replied.

At least 15,000 children are among the more than 300,000 people who have been killed in Syria’s five-year war.

Evacuation from the rebel-held areas of Aleppo has restarted after further delays, which put on hold the ceasefire agreement brokered by Turkey and Russia.

Over 3,000 people – in two convoys of around 20 vehicles – left eastern sections of Aleppo on Dec. 19, after around 350 people left during the night, marking the first departures since Dec. 15.