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People in east Aleppo are posting harrowing goodbye messages on social media

Barbara Tasch   

People in east Aleppo are posting harrowing goodbye messages on social media
Home4 min read

Allepo

Reuters

A man carries a child with an IV drip as he flees deeper into the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria December 12, 2016.

The battle for Aleppo is drawing to a close as thousands of civilians are still trapped in the eastern part of the city.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that lives are at risk as "thousands with no part in the violence have literally nowhere safe to run."

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also raised the alarm about atrocities against civilians in parts of the city re-taken by Bashar al-Assad's militias and army. Reports have suggested that locals are being executed, tortured, and raped.

Civilians inside the rebel-held eastern part of the city have, through social media, shared the horrors going on inside Aleppo. After most of the rebel defences collapsed on Monday and the Syrian army started advancing on the last part of the city, many of them, still trapped in the eastern part of the city, have been posting harrowing final goodbye messages in the past few hours.

Rami Zien, whose Twitter bio says he is a Syrian journalist and activist based in eastern Aleppo and a former freelance photographer for Reuters. His last tweet was sent on December 12 at 6.13 p.m. GMT:

Lina Shamy, whose Twitter bio says "to the great Syrian Revolution I belong," posted her last message on December 13 at 2:41 a.m. GMT:

Earlier on Monday night, she had tweeted this video:

"To everyone who can hear me, we are here exposed to a genocide in the besieged city of Aleppo. This might be my last video. More than 50,000 people who rebelled against the dictator Bashar al-Assad are threatened with field executions or dying under bombings."

She then spoke about reports that people were being executed in parts of the city that had been retaken by Assad forces. She added that the civilians in eastern Aleppo were stuck in small area with no safe zones.

Monther Etaky, a journalist and "activist against Assad's regime" according to his Twitter bio, posted this tweet on December 12 at

And this one on December 13 at

Zouhir Al-Shimale, whose Twitter bio says he is a freelance journalist, tweeted this on December 13 at 8:34 a.m. GMT:

Bana Alabed, a seven-year-old girl, and her mother, have been tweeting about what is happening in eastern Aleppo for months. The last tweet from the account was sent at 9:06 a.m. GMT on December 13:

Bilial Abdul Kareem, whose Twitter bio says he is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. His last tweet was sent at 5:33 p.m. GMT on December 12. This is the penultimate one:

Mr Alhamdo, whose Twitter bio says he is a teacher, activist and reporter in eastern Aleppo. His last tweet was sent at 4:47 a.m. GMT:

In a statement, the White Helmets, a group of volunteer search and rescue workers who have been saving lives in eastern Aleppo since the war started, have estimated that 100,000 civilians are stuck in the city. They now say: "We can do no more."

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