Jenny McCartney Jenny McCartney

Can this sweet little girl get out of Aleppo alive?

Twitter followers around the world send emojis and prayers, but they cannot protect her from the bombings and chaos

issue 03 December 2016

Every morning, after the children go to school, I turn on my computer to check that Bana Alabed is alive and unharmed. I do the same at night. I have never met Bana. She is a sweet-faced, skinny seven-year-old girl who tweets from rebel-held east Aleppo with the help of her mother, Fatemah, an English teacher. Last weekend, as the Syrian government, Russian and Hezbollah forces took over north-eastern Aleppo amid heavy bombardments, Bana tweeted: ‘Tonight we have no house. It’s bombed and I got in rubble. I saw deaths and nearly died.’ As she and her family contemplated their rapidly narrowing options, Bana wrote to her escalating number of followers: ‘I want to live, I don’t want to die.’

At first Bana’s account showed her daily life with her mother and two younger brothers in Aleppo’s al-Shaar district. At home Bana was often reading or writing, or appearing in short videos in which, in her endearing sing-song English, she thanked Twitter friends for their good wishes.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in