In recent weeks, Syrians have taken to Twitter to tell the story of Aleppo: how what was once the largest city in Syria has been ravaged by civil war.
The fighting is between the Russian-backed government, led by Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad, and the anti-government rebels led by Sunni fighters.
The Syrian Civil War has been put on the spotlight once more after Aleppo residents started using Twitter to plead for humanitarian help and outside intervention.
Most of the tweets depict a city that has been torn apart by frequent bombings, bodies blown to bits, and dead bodies lying on the ground. As the battle for Aleppo reaches its conclusion, the tweets asking for help has been changed to tweets saying goodbyes.
Bana Alabed: 'This Is My Last Moment'
One of the most retweeted posts belong to a 7-year-old girl, whose tweets provide the world with a glimpse of the upheaval going on in Aleppo.
"My name is Bana, I'm 7 years old. I am talking to the world now live from East #Aleppo. This is my last moment to either live or die," the young girl Bana Alabed's tweet on Tuesday said. Bana, with the help of her mother Fatemah, has been tweeting about what life was like in the middle of war-torn Aleppo. One of her followers is J. K. Rowling, who sent her a set of Harry Potter books after Bana tweeted a photo of her reading with the caption: "I'm reading to forget the war."
My name is Bana, I'm 7 years old. I am talking to the world now live from East #Aleppo. This is my last moment to either live or die. - Bana
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) December 13, 2016
Other Syrians React On Twitter
In the past 24 hours, there has been a stream of harrowing tweets similar to Bana's that came from Syrians saying their goodbyes on social media.
this is a call and might be the last call. Save Aleppo people. Save my daughter and other children. #StandWithAleppo — @Mr.Alhamdo (@Mr_Alhamdo) December 12, 2016
"This is a call and might be the last call. Save Aleppo people. Save my daughter and other children," tweeted a teacher from Aleppo who goes by the Twitter handle @Mr_Alhamdo.
The teacher later went on Periscope to say his goodbyes. The White Helmets, a volunteer group that helps civilians trapped in the crossfire, tweeted a video of one of its volunteers saying goodbye, with the sound of bombings clearly heard from the background.
Bilal Abdul Kareem, a journalist reporting on the scene, tweeted that the bombings had temporarily stopped because it was raining.
"We have a world that talks about fighting terrorism, and here the people who are being terrorized have to rely on the fact that it's raining and hoping that the rain will stay and the clouds will stay so that they could stay alive," he said, "Interesting world we live in."
A ceasefire has been reached to evacuate the civilians from eastern Aleppo, after weeks of violence and suffering that have left the global community in outrage over the helplessness of Aleppo's civilians.
