7-year-old face of Syrian turmoil, Bana shares 'last message' on Twitter
She has been on Twitter only a few months, but seven-year-old Bana al-Abed's account has become a voice for many trying to comprehend the horror of life under siege in Syria.
The account, which says it's managed by her mother Fatemah, has attracted plenty of attention. It shares pictures of Bana studying, and the ruined city around her. After tweeting about her love for Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling even responded.
But her messages over the last day have cut through a news cycle otherwise distracted by the ramblings of Donald Trump.
After days of posting videos of smoke plumes above Aleppo, Fatemah shared what she said would be their "last message" on late Sunday.
"Under heavy bombardments now, can't be alive anymore. When we die, keep talking for 200,000 still inside. BYE."
The message comes as eastern Aleppo is being pummelled by Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces, prompting waves of civilians to flee.
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Around 250,000 people are thought to be trapped in the city's rebel-held eastern districts in a government-led siege involving heavy airstrikes, decimating homes and all medical centres.
"The situation in besieged Aleppo [is] very very bad, thousands of eastern residents are moving to the western side of the city," Khaled Khatib, a photographer for the Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group The White Helmets, posted on Twitter. "Aleppo is going to die."
The account tweeted again six hours later with a picture of Bana, covered in dust.
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While how they post online is unclear, the family have said their Twitter account is a way to make the world listen.
"Bana asked me why is the world not hearing us? Why is nobody helping us?" Fatemah told The Guardian in an interview about the account.
"They think those besieged are terrorists, and as you can see we are just normal people ... We are Syrians, we are the people of Aleppo."
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Bana is one of many Syrian children who live cut off from food and medical aid. According to the U.N.'s child agency on Sunday, nearly 500,000 children live "under siege" in Syria.
"Children are being killed and injured, too afraid to go to school or even play, surviving with little food and hardly any medicine," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "This is no way to live -- and too many are dying."
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
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Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
