SDF Accused of Abducting 14-Year-Old Girl in Aleppo
ARK News.. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been accused of abducting a 14-year-old Kurdish girl in Aleppo as part of what rights groups describe as a continuing policy of child recruitment in areas under their control.
According to ARK News, members of the Revolutionary Youth Movement affiliated with the SDF, kidnapped Nujan Ahmed Khalil, a minor from Afrin’s Sherawa area, on August 16. She was reportedly taken from Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood.
Khalil, originally from the village of Kurzele in Afrin, is the latest case in a series of reported abductions of minors for conscription into SDF-run camps.
This comes despite a formal Action Plan signed in 2019 by SDF commander Mazloum Abdi with Virginia Gamba, the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, pledging to end the recruitment and use of children under 18 in military activities.
Rights groups and local families, however, say the practice persists, with minors frequently targeted and forced into training and combat roles.
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