Syrian Democratic Forces carried out raids on February 22, 2021, in Abu Shajara village, which is administratively a part of al Mansoura town in the western suburbs of Raqqa governorate. SNHR has documented that eight civilians, including two children, were arrested in the raids on charges of obstruction of a SDF patrol and taken to an undisclosed location.
SNHR note that no members of the detainees’ families have been informed of their arrests or of their current whereabouts, with the phones of the detained civilians being confiscated, preventing them from contacting their families. SNHR fears that they will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’, like approximately 85 percent of all detained persons.
SNHR notes that about 3,398 Syrian citizens are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the SDF’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to their wellbeing given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
