‘Until my last breath’: Searching for relatives at Syria’s ‘slaughterhouse’

Sednaya, Syria – For decades, Sednaya prison was only ever mentioned in hushed tones in Syria. Torture and death were known to be routine in this place everyone called the “human slaughterhouse”.

But on the evening of December 7, that all ended when Syrian opposition fighters burst through doors and liberated the prisoners.

In no time, thousands of Syrians descended on the prison in the mountains north of Damascus, desperately seeking news of the loved ones they believed had disappeared behind the prison’s walls.

Standing in front of the prison, Jumaa Jubbu, who is from al-Kafir in Idlib, said: “The liberation [of Syria] is an indescribable joy.

“But the joy is incomplete because there are [hundreds of thousands] of missing detainees, and we haven’t heard any news about them at all.”