Former Raqqa female co-chair dies after medical complications

Leila Mustafa, the former Kurdish co-mayor of the Syrian city of Raqqa, on Thursday died due to health reasons.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2023/11/25 23:34

Leila Mustafa, the former Kurdish co-mayor of the Syrian city of Raqqa (Photo: Wladimir van Wilgenburg/Kurdistan 24)

Syria Leila Mustafa raqqa Syrian Democratic Council ISIS

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Leila Mustafa, the former Kurdish co-mayor of the Syrian city of Raqqa, on Saturday passed away after succumbing to medical complications during surgery.

Ms. Mustafa, a civil engineer in her 30s, was the first co-chair of the Raqqa Civil Council (RCC), an assembly founded in 2017 to reconstruct and rebuild Raqqa. Notably, the assembly was founded just before the collapse of ISIS that same year, as the city served as a stronghold for the terror group for several years.

In 2019, Mustafa told Kurdistan 24, “When we first liberated Raqqa, it was a pile of mines and destruction. All the infrastructure was destroyed: education, health, humanitarian side.”

“No place in the world has seen such destruction as Raqqa. With the efforts of the SDC [Syrian Democratic Council] and also the support from humanitarian organizations, we have achieved a big milestone.”

In 2021, she won the international World Mayor Jury Award.

“With great sadness, we bid farewell to Eng. Layla Mustafa, first co-chair of Raqqa Civil Council, who led the city's reconstruction after ISIS defeat,” the Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Abdi continued, “The deceased was a symbol of a free and ambitious women. She struggled to establish the AANES (Autonomous Administration of North East Syria) system and led the rehabilitation process after defeating ISIS' radical mentality.”

“She also worked on providing stability and coexistence,” he concluded.

Moreover, Elham Ahmed, the President of the Executive Committee of Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) posted on X that Mustafa was a “free young woman with determination, and initiative in strengthening the bonds of fraternal relations between the people of Raqqa and all its cultures.”