Hanan Ajjan was living in the village of Yalda, which, at the time, was under the control of the Free Syrian Army and besieged by the Syrian Army. On November 15, 2013, the Syrian Army agreed to allow the evacuation of all the civilians not directly participating in hostilities.

On November 15, 2013, while they were trying to evacuate Yalda, Hanan Ajjan and other members of her family were stopped at a checkpoint controlled by the Syrian Army located in in Al Hajar Al Aswad. Members of the Syrian Army, wearing military uniforms, arrested Hanan Ajjan and the other members of the family and took them to an unknown location. Hanan Ajjan’s fate and whereabouts remain unknown to date.

Since the arrest, Hanan Ajjan’s family has gone every year – the last time in May 2019 – to enquire about her fate and whereabouts to the military police station in Qaboun, Damascus Governorate, as well as to the Criminal Court in Damascus, but to no avail.

At the beginning of February 2018, a former detainee informed Hanan Ajjan’s family that they had seen Hanan in one of the detention centres run by the Syrian authorities and that “she was alive”. However, the former detainee did not mention the name of the detention centre for fear of arrest.