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A seven-year-old Syrian girl who captured global attention with her Twitter updates from besieged Aleppo has been evacuated from the city, according to an aid organisation.
Bana al-Abed and her mother Fatemah have been taken to al-Rashideen on the southwest edge of Aleppo.
Helped by her mother, who manages the @AlabedBana account, Bana has uploaded pictures and videos of life during the nearly six-year-old Syrian civil war, gaining about 331,000 followers on the micro-blogging site since September.
Last week, mother and daughter shared a video of themselves asking US first lady Michelle Obama for help in reaching a safe place after advances by the Syrian army and allied Shia militias into rebel-held areas in the east of the city.
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A ceasefire and evacuation deal was agreed between rebels and government forces last Tuesday, but thousands of people have struggled to leave due to hold-ups.
“This morning @AlabedBana was also rescued from #Aleppo with her family. We warmly welcomed them,” Turkish aid agency IHH wrote on Twitter on Monday, alongside a picture of the smiling girl with an aid worker.
Mother’s statement
Speaking to the pro-opposition Qasioun news agency, Fatemah said: “I am sad because I leave my country, I leave my soul there . . . We can’t stay there because there are a lot of bombs, and no clean water, no medicine.
“When we get out, we had a lot of suffering because we stayed almost 24 hours in bus without water and food or anything,” Fatemah continued.
“We stayed like a prisoner, a hostage, but finally we arrived here.”
An operation to bring thousands of people out of the last rebel-held enclave of Aleppo was under way again on Monday after being delayed for several days, together with the simultaneous evacuation of two besieged pro-government villages in nearby Idlib province.
Reuters