Nina From Aleppo Could Be The Bravest Reporter In The World

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

At her age, Bana Al Abed should be playing with her friends and going to school, like every 7-year-old girl in the world. The problem is that Bana lives in Aleppo, the city of Syria in the hands of rebels subjected to a fierce siege by the regime that governs the country and its Russian allies.

The experiences that the little girl goes through can be followed through her Twitter account @AlabedBana, in which together with her mother, Fatema, they make known to the world what it is to live in the midst of desolation and terror.

Bana is not the first girl to put a face to the war in Syria, but she is the first to tell everything on a daily basis as if she were a "cyber war reporter".

Through his messages, his 220,000 followers have been able to follow the advance of the Syrian Army towards his home in eastern Aleppo, a sector that has suffered heavy bombardment that has left him practically in ruins at a high cost in human lives.

Bana also recounted how in one of those infernal attacks she lost all her wrists and, what is worse, one of her friends.

Last Sunday her mother took the account of her daughter to say goodbye to what is considered the final assault by the forces of the regime of President Bachar Al Asad. We are sure that the Army is going to stop us now. We will see each other again one day, dear world. See you soon. Fatema”.

Soon after, he wrote: “Under attack. There is nowhere to go, every minute feels like death. Pray for us. Goodbye.

Since during those 24 hours the only one who wrote was her, Bana's followers began to worry and asked for her appearance through the hashtag: #WhereisBana (Where's Bana).

On Tuesday, the little girl finally reappeared, explaining that she had been ill due to the bombings, but that she was fine.

The little girl's messages are combined with explanations of daily activities typical of someone her age, such as that she likes to play with her little brothers and read. Hence, the writer JK Rowling sent him all the books of the Harry Potter saga electronically.

The little girl with long dark hair and big eyes advocates for all the children caught up in that war and invites her followers to join their cause through the hashtag #EvacuateAleppoKids

According to The New York Times, there are those who doubt the authenticity of Bana's account and point out that his messages are in very sophisticated English to come from a 7-year-old girl, so they suspect that it is a propaganda trick of the rebels.

The mother of the little girl told the newspaper by Skype that she is a 26-year-old English teacher who lives in eastern Aleppo, along with two little brothers from Bana. Twitter verified the veracity of the account.

"In the case of this girl, I do not know if it is true or false in these times of the digital media that we live in," the director of Save The Childern in Syria, Sonia Khush, told the Times. “But their experiences in Aleppo are consistent with what they tell us is happening. Fear, noise from planes and drones. They are terrified and find it difficult to sleep at night.”