Where is Bana? Aleppo girl’s Twitter account goes dark
The girl described as the Anne Frank of Aleppo, 7 year old Bana Alabed, and her mother, are safe. Photo: Twitter
The Twitter account of a seven-year-old Aleppo girl who regularly posted about day-to-day life in her hometown has disappeared.
Bana Alabed, who tweeted from the war zone with the help of her mother Fatemah, last week posted about heavy bombardments in her area that destroyed her house, and said she was “in between death and life”.
We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world. Bye.- Fatemah #Aleppo
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) December 4, 2016
Though Bana described one of those tweets as her “last message”, the account remained active.
But by Sunday the account, which was created in September and had amassed more than 100,000 followers, had been deleted.
One of the last tweets read: “We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world. Bye.- Fatemah #Aleppo.”
Bana’s account had given a human face to the everyday reality of life in Aleppo.
She and her mother tweeted about the steady stream of bombings, sent pleas politicians to end the conflict, and shared photos and short videos of Bana and her brothers drawing, playing and praying.
This is my reading place where I wanted to start reading Harry Potter but it's bombed. I will never forget. – Bana pic.twitter.com/6fXX2Me8ZB
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 29, 2016
After the account disappeared, social media users tweeted their concern using the hashtag #WhereIsBana.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has exchanged tweets with Bana and earlier sent her entire book series, retweeted posts about Bana’s missing account.
On Friday, Rowling tweeted a video of Bana saying she was on the run and feared being killed.
From @AlabedBana in #Aleppo pic.twitter.com/ZHHRpZVVp6
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 2, 2016
Syrian warplanes, artillery and mortar rounds have been pounding areas of eastern Aleppo, where Bana lived.
Rebel fighters have been increasingly squeezed into the centre of the eastern enclave as government troops gain new ground.
The United Nations estimates more than 31,000 people have already fled their homes, either to government or Kurdish areas or deeper into the besieged enclave, since the start of the latest military offensive.
