Two men, identified as Kassoum al-Zidan and Mohammad al-Mohammad, both from al-Sultaniya village, administratively affiliated with Manbij city in eastern rural Aleppo governorate, were arrested on January 12, 2024, by the Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) Military Police at al-Khattaf Checkpoint located at the eastern entrance to Manbij city. They were then taken to an SDF military recruitment camp in Raqqa governorate.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that the detainees’ phones were seized following their arrest, and they have not been allowed to contact their family.
SNHR is concerned that they may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become more enforced disappearance cases, with 85% of all those detained in Syria falling into this category.
We call for the provision of both material and moral reparations for the victims of such detentions and for their families, and call on all parties to put an end to all arbitrary detentions whose only purpose is to spread mass fear and extort people.
We also call on the SDF to reveal the fate of thousands of people forcibly disappeared at its hands.
