Armed groups affiliated with the Syrian Transitional Government, deployed around the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiah, abducted Bangîn Ebod, a second-year civil engineering student at Aleppo University, and Ehmed Welîd Omer, a first-year student.
According to sources close to the families, the students, who study at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Aleppo University, were abducted while returning home after classes. The last contact with the students was at 12:00.
Witnesses in the Suryan neighborhood reported seeing both students abducted at gunpoint by armed groups affiliated with the Syrian Transitional Government around 12:30.
Students’ families call for urgent action
The written statement issued by the families regarding the abduction of their children reads as follows: “We, the families of the students Bangîn Ebod and Ehmed Welîd Omar, report that on Saturday at around 12:00 noon we lost contact with our children.
According to the information we have obtained, our children were arbitrarily detained at the ‘Zihor checkpoint’ solely because they reside in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiah neighborhoods, without any justification.
We emphasize that these two young people are university students with no connection to any political activities, and that their sole aim is to continue their education.
We call for urgent intervention to clarify their fate and to secure their release so that they can complete their studies.
We demand that students be kept away from the conflict and that safe corridors be provided to allow them to reach their universities without obstruction or exposure to arbitrary detention.
We hope that the relevant parties will act swiftly to resolve this issue from a humanitarian and legal perspective.”