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7-year-old Syrian girl, made famous with heartbreaking Twitter posts, is finally evacuated from Aleppo

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'We have managed to escape the destruction, because our house was reduced to rubble.'

Bana Alabed and her journalist mother Fatemah Alabed joined forces to show the world an inside view of their war-torn city.

Highlights

By Kenya Sinclair (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
12/19/2016 (7 years ago)

Published in Middle East

Keywords: Bana Alabed, Aleppo, Twitter, evacuated

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Their Twitter account has over 330,000 followers and the "About" section reads: "Hi I'm Bana I'm 7 years old girl [sic]. I and my mom are tweeting live from East Aleppo. Account managed by mom."

The posts revealed life in the city of Aleppo as rebel forces fight the Russia-backed Syrian army.


One image pinned to the top shows Bana reading a book and has the caption, "Good afternoon from #Aleppo I'm reading to forget the war."

Not all posts are as innocent, with one message posted Friday reading: "Share this message to the whole world. #Aleppo ceasefire broke, civilians are in danger. I beg world [sic] u do something now to get us out."

Government and rebel forces agreed to a temporary ceasefire to allow thousands of citizens to be evacuated from eastern Aleppo but snipers attacked an ambulance transporting two patients from a hospital, bringing all evacuations to a temporary end.

On Saturday, the duo posted a message of peace, "Everyone teach peace from birth & everyone die in peace."

The post was a simple request, but the next message posted the following day revealed their desperation.

On Sunday, the Twitter account reached out to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and the President of Turkey: "Dear @MevlutCavusoglu & @rt_erdagon please please please make this ceasefire work & get us out now. We are so tired. - Fatemah #Aleppo


Since Sunday's post, the Twitter account has been silent.

For the second time, the Bana's silence troubled her followers. Was she okay? Was her mother? What was happening in Aleppo?

Thankfully, Bana and her mother were two of the roughly 3,000 evacuated from their city.

Fatemah told reporters she and her daughter were among many held on a bus "like hostages" for 24-hours without food or water. The buses were stalled but eventually made its way out of the danger zone.

When they finally made it out of their hometown, Fatemah told the Turkish news agency Anadolu: "Thank you. We have managed to escape the destruction, because our house was reduced to rubble. I would like to say thank you to all those who have been asking about our news."

To Qasioun News Agency, Fatemah shared: "We are happy because our voice reached all the world. [But] I am sad because in my country, I leave my soul there."

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There is no news of the family's next move or where they will be sent, and the plea to Turkish officials have led many to question whether Bana was living in Turkey.

An investigation by Bellingcat, a citizen journalism site, revealed the Alabeds were sending their Twitter messages from within Aleppo, bringing all questions to a close.

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