Contact was lost with the minor Alma Hassan Saadi, affiliated with the Alawite sect, after she left her home in the Mazzeh 86 neighborhood of the Syrian capital, Damascus, at approximately 11:50 a.m. on Saturday, 20 December 2025. Since that moment, no information has been available regarding her fate or whereabouts, and it is not known whether she was subjected to abduction or any other form of violation.
The disappearance of Alma Hassan Saadi (14 years old) comes within a broader context of incidents of abduction, detention, and violations targeting women and children from the Alawite sect in multiple areas of Syria during the same period.
In the city of Homs, the abduction of Ms. Yasmin Al-Amouri, affiliated with the Alawite sect, along with her child Ilya Al-Hassan, three years old, was reported on the evening of Saturday, 13 December 2025. According to available information, the incident occurred while they were traveling from her parents’ home opposite the Comprehensive Clinics to her home in the Karm Al-Louz neighborhood—a distance not exceeding 500 meters—before contact with them was completely lost, with no knowledge of their fate or the party responsible for the incident. The abduction took place in a populated residential area, highlighting the danger of targeting civilians, particularly women and children, during their daily movements.
On approximately the following day, contact was lost with the minor Marah Muhannad Darwish (16 years old), affiliated with the same sect, on 14 December 2025 while she was heading to her grandfather’s home in the Al-Muhajireen neighborhood in the city of Homs. Days later, her family reported that she had been found, without details provided regarding the circumstances of the incident.
In a related context, other cases of arbitrary detention were recorded, including the case of Ms. Nadia Ali Al-Kaadi, 70 years old, who has remained detained since 12 November 2025 in Tartous Prison – Trusts Section, by the security forces Affiliated with the interim authority known as “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham”, without any legal charge being brought against her or any official information issued regarding her legal or health status. Ms. Nadia is from the village of Ain Shaqaq in the rural area of Jableh in Latakia Governorate and is affiliated with the Alawite sect. The data indicate that her detention came in the context of the pursuit of one of her sons, in what is considered a form of detention used as a means of pressure on the family. To date, no confirmed information is available regarding her safety, despite her suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure and her need for continuous medical care.
During the same period, an incident of abduction and arbitrary detention of the girl Yara Salman was also recorded in the city of Latakia in late October 2025, before her release on 14 December 2025, in an incident that raised widespread human rights concerns regarding the targeting of women from minorities and the denial of basic legal guarantees to them.
These incidents, foremost among them the disappearance of the minor Alma Hassan Saadi, reflect a troubling pattern of grave human rights violations, including abduction, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and collective punishment, amid the absence of accountability and weak legal protection. This pattern constitutes a direct threat to the right to liberty and personal security, particularly for women, children, and the elderly belonging to religious and sectarian minorities in Syria.
