A 7-Year-Old Girl In Aleppo Live-Tweets The Harrowing Experience Of Syrian Residents

Presidential candidate gaffes aside, the city of Aleppo has been a constant presence in nightly news coverage of the Syrian conflict. The city has been besieged with ongoing airstrikes, which have created chilling images in the process. Residents find themselves caught in the middle of an escalating conflict between government and rebel forces, and some are documenting it along the way.

Seven-year-old Bana Alabed, along with the help of her mother Fatemah, has been tweeting the ongoing conflict. Together, they present an inside look at the struggles the city is facing and how residents are trying to overcome. Bana’s Twitter account is a mix of images from the aftermath of airstrikes committed by Russian and Syrian forces, and her mother signs off on uplifting messages from Bana herself.

In an interview with the BBC, Fatemah said they are able to send tweets as they gain electricity through solar power, but they are still are facing poor telephone and internet connections. She went on to say that some have accused the Twitter page of being a fake account with the implication that her daughter is a propaganda device, but she said Bana simply wanted to highlight the issues faced by the people of Aleppo.

“She [Bana] saw everything here. She saw her friend killed, and our house bombed. She saw her school bombed. So that affected her.”

Fatemah went on to say one of Bana’s friends died in a nearby bombing and that her seven-year-old has already been exposed to more than someone her age should be.

(Via BBC)