10 August 2017
A group of women from Chechnya appealed on 10 August for Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov to help return their daughters and grandchildren from areas controlled by the Islamic State. They also appealed to the well-known Chechen human rights activist Kheda Saratova with the same request.
‘Hundreds of young Chechen women not wanting to divorce and break their families, or being tricked by their husbands, have been forced to leave our country with their husbands and children and are now in warzones literally stuck between life and death’, the women’s appeal reads.
‘We are ready to accept any punishment for our daughters, if only we could get back our little grandchildren’, it continues.
Human rights activist Kheda Saratova supported the appeal and on her own behalf also asked Kadyrov to facilitate the return of women and children.
Later on 10 August, Kadyrov posted an appeal to his Instagram page for help in finding the parents of Russian children found in Mosul. He shared a video of Russian-speaking children in the city.
‘They do not remember their names, but they remember pain, fear, and death. Can someone recognise these children?’ he wrote.
On 2 August a four-year-old boy whose father took him Iraq two years ago was returned to Chechnya. A large number of people from Jordan, Iraq, and Chechnya participated in his return, according to Chechen authorities.
