Bana Alabed, the seven-year-old girl whose tweets from Aleppo gave devastating insights into the Syrian war, has pleaded with new US President Donald Trump to "do something for the children in Syria" in an open letter.
Bana amassed hundreds of thousands of followers for her tweets and images from war-torn Aleppo, posted with the help of her mother, Fatemah. The family was evacuated to Turkey in December during the mass evacuations, and is currently there.
No more bombing.. I have 20 days of peace in my life. I thought the world was just like Aleppo & bombing was normal pic.twitter.com/sBx1jwRpIe
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) January 14, 2017
"You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you," she said in the letter. Fatemah said Bana wrote the letter days before Trump's inauguration, because "she has seen Trump many times on the TV", BBC reported on Tuesday.
"I am part of the Syrian children who suffered from the Syrian war," she wrote in the letter. Bana told Trump that her school in Aleppo was destroyed by the bombing. Some of her friends had died too.
"Right now, in Turkey, I can go out and enjoy. I can go to school although I didn't yet. That is why peace is important for everyone including you."
Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Everywhere peace. Peace. Peace everywhere pic.twitter.com/A2ExhPetRh
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) January 16, 2017
"However, millions of Syrian children are not like me right now and suffering in different parts of Syria. They are suffering because of adult people," she wrote.
She beseeched him in the letter to “save the children and the people of Syria” because they too deserved peace.
Bana also offered her friendship to Trump saying, "If you promise me you will do something for the children of Syria, I am already your new friend."
Of the 3 lakh and more people killed in Syria’s six year war, at least 15,000 are children.
It is not known if Trump has responded.