Terrified 7-Year-Old Live-Tweeting Syrian Airstrikes Will Leave You In Tears
Bana Alabed is like many other 7-year-olds around the world.
She likes going to school. She gets comfort from her mother when she's scared. She's exploring technology and the internet.
But unlike many other 7-year-olds around the world, Bana is in the middle of war-torn Aleppo, a city in Syria.
Syria is still in the midst of a years-long civil war. The Syrian government, rebel forces, ISIS, Russia and the United States are all pushing and pulling for control.
And until this conflict can be solved, children are dying. Bana is witnessing this first-hand.
Bana and her mother, Fatemah, are documenting the destruction around them on Twitter, using the account @AlabedBana.
Fatemah told the Guardian she started the Twitter account after Bana asked her,
Why is the world not hearing us? Why is nobody helping us?
The bio on the Twitter account reads simply,
Hi I'm Bana I'm 7 years old girl in Aleppo. I & my mom want to tell about the bombing here. Thank you
They use the Twitter account to document their thoughts, including desperate hopes for peace:
Bana and her 5-year-old brother don't go to school anymore. Their local school was bombed last year and other schools are far away, which makes them dangerous to travel to.
They explained on Twitter they're using some of the remaining WiFi to broadcast their situation. They also said they only have rice and pasta to eat, and that there's no electricity.
The mother and daughter tweet about being kept awake in the middle of the night because of ongoing bombing around them.
They also tweet images of the destruction around them. Bana tweeted about her friend dying, saying she "misses her so much."
Last month, there was a brief ceasefire in the country. It was put together by the United States and Russia and lasted for one week.
But after that week, bombs came raining down on the nation again as the ceasefire came to an abrupt end.
Bana and Fatemah are seeing the results of that, and they're terrified they will become victims of the crisis.
They frequently tweet appeals to foreign leaders, including Vladimir Putin of Russia, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and John Kerry and Barack Obama of the United States. They ask the leaders to remember them and others like them.
Bana and Fatemah want the world to see what they're living through. They want us to remember this war is still going on and lives are being lost. We owe it to them to give their words attention.
Citations: Guardian, Independent
