Three women and one girl were reported to have been kidnapped during the month of January. One was reportedly released, while the whereabouts of three remain unknown. Armed groups known to be responsible for kidnappings this month are Ahrar al Sharqiyah and Sultan Suleiman Shah.
On January 6th, Roshin Amouna Mohammed was kidnapped by an unknown armed group, according to a local source who spoke with the Missing Afrin Women Project. This was the second time that she had been abducted.
Roshin had recently been released after more than two years in custody. She was kidnapped for the first time in September 2018, from the village of Dar Kabir near Mobata.
In June 2020, she was identified as one of at least eight women in an illegal prison run by the Hamza Division.
She was released, along with three family members who had been kidnapped at the same time, on December 21st, 2020.
Information from the Afrin Canton Independent High Electoral Commission from 2015 suggests that she had been elected to the municipal council in Mobata when Afrin was controlled by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. This suggests that she may have been targeted for political reasons.
On January 19, a 16-year-old girl named Amal Fathi Rashid was reportedly abducted by Sultan Suleiman Shah from the village of Hec Bila, near Sheikh al-Hadid.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights corroborated the report. Sultan Suleiman Shah is known to control the area around Sheikh al-Hadid.
On January 23rd, Khaleda Hussein was reportedly kidnapped from a village near Jinderes by members of Ahrar al Sharqiyah. Multiple reports state that she is disabled.
The Afrin Activists Network alleges that two members of Ahrar al Sharqiyah, known as Hamad Jassim and Abu al-Aynaa, were the perpetrators. They also claim that she was being held at a house belonging to one of the leaders of the group.
On January 27th, she was released. The Human Rights Organization in Afrin claims that this was due in part to the widespread publicity the case received, which they claim forced authorities to act.
In late January, a woman named Berivan Shahin was reportedly kidnapped while traveling from Kafr Safreh to Jinderes by an unknown armed group. According to the Afrin Activists Network, she was taken to a prison in Kafr Janneh and then transferred to Idlib Governorate.