Child tweeter Bana Alabed safely evacuated from Aleppo

Bana Alabed, the seven-year-old girl who has been tweeting about life amid the devastation of eastern Aleppo, has been safely evacuated from the city.

President of the Syrian American Medical Society Ahmad Tarakji tweeted a picture of a smiling Bana in a woolly hat.

The tweet said: ".@AlabedBana and many children arrived to #Aleppo countryside. @sams_usa @UOSSM and partners arr coordinating the response plan there."


@AlabedBana and many children arrived to #Aleppo countryside. @sams_usa@UOSSM and partners arr coordinating the response plan there. pic.twitter.com/k3iAohYbFY— Ahmad Tarakji, MD (@tarakjiahmad) 19 December 2016

The messages from the account, which she shares with her mother Fatemah, had become increasingly desperate.

They detailed how they narrowly escaped death when their home was destroyed and how people were killed around them as bombs rained down.

Their future appeared uncertain after the girl's most recent tweets said: "This is my last moment to either live or die" and "Please save us now."

Her mother added: "Final message - people are dying since last night. I am very surprised I am tweeting right now & still alive. - Fatemah #Aleppo."

Last night, she posted again, begging "please please please make this ceasefire work & get us out now. We are so tired".

Bana's tweets had given an insight into the terrifying daily struggle of people in Aleppo as they endured bombs, airstrikes and ground battles.

In one message from the war-torn city, she wrote: "Tonight we have no house, it's bombed & I got in rubble. I saw deaths and I almost died - Bana #Aleppo."

Another said: "My friends this is not the moon, the is bomb falling now. Please pray for us tonight. I am afraid. - Bana #Aleppo."

She also commented on the dreadful conditions inside the city's cut-off eastern neighbourhoods: "I am sick now, I have no medicine, no home, no clean water. This will make me die even before a bomb kill me."

But the seven-year-old also shared some lighter moments, such as a photo of her smiling when she lost two teeth.

Bana's escape from the city comes as tens of thousands of people are being evacuated from Aleppo to rebel-held areas of the countryside west of the city.

It is part of the ceasefire agreed after the regime and its allies intensified attacks in Aleppo and all but wiped out the rebels' territory.