LONDON: The death of a 7-year-old girl who vanished in Dumair, a city in the Syrian Arab Republic’s Rif Dimashq province, is the latest in a series of cases involving missing girls found dead, heightening concerns over child safety in the war-weary country and prompting calls for accountability.
Aseel Khattab was reported missing on Aug. 18, after leaving her home in Dumair to buy items from a nearby grocery store, according to local reports. Her body was later found in an abandoned apartment.
Residents and neighborhood volunteers had searched for Khattab in the days after she vanished. Local residents said her body was not discovered until Thursday, despite those efforts.
Aseel Khattab, 7, is the fourth child to disappear and later be found dead in less than two months. (Facebook)
On Saturday, Syrian authorities announced the arrest of people allegedly involved in her killing, the state-run SANA news agency reported. Syria TV said internal security teams detained two suspects who were being questioned to determine the circumstances and motive.
Authorities have not yet identified the detainees or disclosed their relationship to Khattab. They also have not released final forensic findings on the cause of death as the investigation continues.
Later Saturday, Khattab’s relatives and Dumair residents held a sit-in outside the city’s police station, expressing solidarity with her family and calling for swift justice and accountability for those responsible.
Her killing follows the deaths of several other girls who disappeared in late July and early August, including Ghala Khamis Al-Saleh Al-Khamis, Farah Al-Hammoud and Nour Muhannad Al-Dous.
The cases have renewed concerns about the safety of children in Syria.
Alia Amina Ahmad, a social researcher and trainer who specializes in women’s and children’s rights, said violence against children in Syria “is not a new phenomenon,” but that many cases may have gone unnoticed because of “silence, fear, weak documentation, and limited media coverage.”
“Now, with these stories recurring and spreading rapidly on social media, we must not become desensitized to them or treat them as isolated, unrelated incidents,” Ahmad told Arab News.
The cases reported in Syria in less than two months “clearly reveal how fragile child-protection systems are,” she said.
Ahmad said effective protection requires clear and deterrent laws, security services and police able to respond quickly to reports of missing children, safe reporting mechanisms, specialized social and psychological institutions, and schools and communities trained to recognize warning signs.
“There must also be genuine accountability,” she said, “one that does not allow a crime to become just another passing news story.
“We should not wait until dozens of children have disappeared, or until their violated bodies are found, and only then demand justice for the perpetrators.”
Preventive efforts, she added, should include teaching children in age-appropriate ways about personal boundaries, how to say no, how to seek help and which adults they can trust.
“Most importantly, we must stop placing the responsibility for protecting children solely on parents,” Ahmad said. “Child protection cannot be the family’s task alone; it is the responsibility of the state, society, institutions, schools, police, the judiciary and others.”
