BY Fattah Issa
KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – Madina Abdurrahman, a resident of the city of Kobani, northern Syria, keep waiting to know the fate of her son and brother who were abducted by the Islamic State (ISIS) 10 years ago.
Abdurrahman, 45, a resident of the village of Khanik Avdo in the southeastern countryside of Kobani, told North Press about her sadness, stating that her husband passed away due to the grief for his son. On the other hand, she expressed her hope for her son’s return.
“ISIS abducted my son and brother in the village of Aliya in the countryside of Kobani on February 18, 2014 while they were heading to Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) to work. Since then, we have not known anything about them,” Madina said.
On the same day, 150 individuals have been missing while they were traveling along Kobani-Hasakah road, according to the Violations Documentation Center in Syria.
During 2013 and 2014, more than 550 individuals from Kobani were abducted by ISIS, according to documentation centers and human rights organizations. Despite five years have passed since the military defeat of ISIS in its last stronghold in the town of Baghuz, east of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, eastern Syria, the fate of people abducted by the group remains unknown.
Ahmad Abdurrahman, 52, a resident of the village of Khanik Avdo, told North Press about what he experienced when ISIS attacked Kobani countryside on Sept. 14, 2014, and abducted his son.
“My son was a Kurdish language teacher at a school in the village of Korek, south of Kobani. ISIS abducted my son along with three of his colleagues,” Abdurrahman said.
“After eight months of his abduction, we received information that he was in a prison in Raqqa,” Abdurrahman added. This piece of information was the only one the man received about his son.
According to UN estimates in 2021, the number of missing individuals in Syria since 2011 has amounted to approximately 130,000 individuals. However, it is believed that the actual numbers are higher than what was reported.
In June, 2023, the UN General Assembly announced a project to establish an institution for uncovering the fate of the missing in Syria. This expresses the international community’s commitment to address this humanitarian issue.
In 2023, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) established the Missing Persons Committee in Northeast Syria in response to a call by the UN General Assembly. The Assembly adopted a resolution to establish an institution for uncovering the fate of those missing and forcibly disappeared in Syria.
The Committee faces significant challenges, including the lack of available laboratories for DNA analysis and the shortage of trained and specialized staff.
Families of the missing appealed to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the UN, as well as human rights organizations, to seriously work on uncovering the fate of those who were abducted by ISIS. The families emphasized that uncovering the fate of their children would alleviate their sadness.