The popular Twitter account of 7-year-old Syrian girl Bana al-Abed reappeared on Monday, after reports of her account disappearing from the micro-blogging site surfaced on Monday. The young activist has been posting about her struggle to survive in the Syrian conflict in eastern Aleppo.
After her account went silent, there were fears about her safety. However, British media on Tuesday reported that the girl was "safe." Sources told BBC that the girl and her mother, Fatemah, are both alive and are hiding in an undisclosed location in Aleppo.
Bana's account is managed by her mother Fatemah as she tweets about the ordeal they face on a day-to-day basis in war-gripped Aleppo in Syria. Fatemah began tweeting from Bana's account in September, and the account since then has gained huge popularity and the followers keep updated about their status.
As the Syrian army continues their offensive against the rebels in the besieged Eastern Aleppo, the family has been documenting their struggle to survive in the region with constant bombing.
However, Bana's account disappeared from Twitter. Shortly after Bana's last post, the account appeared to have been deleted.
"We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world. Bye. — Fatemah," the last post read.
Syrian government forces last week had taken six major rebel-held areas in Aleppo, causing more than 10,000 civilians to flee the violence-struck region as the forces pressed for an offensive. Rebels have, for months, been engaged in a battle with the Syrian government and their Russian allies in eastern Aleppo, and want to topple the government.
Reports state that after the fresh onslaught by the Syria army, around 31,000 people were displaced in the region with many without any shelter to seek refuge in. World leaders, including Turkish and German foreign ministers, have urged for a ceasefire in the region, but a halt in the ongoing violence is not expected anytime soon.
" I have no medicine, no home, no clean water. This will make me die even before a bomb kill me," Bana's account had stated last month.
The girl had also tweeted on November 27 that she had almost died after her home was destroyed by bombing, together with a picture of herself covered in dust. Al-abed reported that she had a minor injury and was hungry. There was another post last week on her Twitter account stating that she was worried that the Syrian army would target her family because of the Twitter posts.
