A woman, identified as Rahaf Ahmad al-Barhou, born in 2005, from Manbij city in eastern rural Aleppo governorate, was arrested on August 25, 2024, by personnel from the Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) Internal Security in Manbij city’s al-Hzawna neighborhood following a verbal dispute between her and an internal security officer. She was then taken to an SDF recruitment camp.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) notes that Rahaf’s phone has been confiscated, and she has not been allowed to contact her family. We are concerned that she may be subjected to torture in detention and may go on to become another enforced disappearance case, 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.
