Security

Alleged kidnapping of underage girl by PYD-linked forces in Aleppo

Abdulselami has been missing for two months, and her family has called on international organizations to exert pressure on the PYD to determine their daughter's fate.

Kurdistan 24 2024/01/12 12:16

Ester Ahmed Abdulselami (14) was allegedly kidnapped by PYD-linked forces (Photo: social media)

Syria PYD Child recruitment Revolutionary Youth Movement Sheikh Maqsoud

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Ester Ahmed Abdulselami (14), was allegedly kidnapped by forces affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud District.

Abdulselami has been missing for two months, and her family has called on local and international organizations to exert pressure on the PYD to determine their daughter's fate.

Abdulselami's mother, Cenge Ibrahim, told Kurdistan 24 on Thursday that her daughter was kidnapped while going to school.

She said she reached out to the local police and Asayish to gather more information on her daughter, but she has not received any updates so far.

She called on the UN to investigate her daughter’s case.

Kurdish forces control Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood. Many civilians from Afrin fled to the Sheikh Maqsoud after the Turkish Army and Turkish-backed armed groups invaded and occupied that northwestern enclave in 2018.

Also in 2022, the PYD-linked Revolutionary Youth Movement was accused of abducting a 14-year-old Kurdish boy in the Sheikh Maqsoud district.

The Revolutionary Youth Movement is also suspected of kidnapping Ester Ahmed Abdulselami.

The fourth United Nations report on children and armed conflict, covering the period from July 1, 2020 to Sep. 30, 2022, armed groups recruited 2,990 children in Syria in the time period.

According to international human rights law, 18 is the minimum legal age for recruitment and use of children in hostilities.

Although the SDF had committed to measures in the action plan signed in 2019 with the United Nations to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children under the age of 18, the UN verified several cases attributed to SDF and the Internal Security Forces (Asayish).