UN to evacuate Aleppo if truce holds
ALEPPO: The United Nations hopes to carry out the first medical evacuations from Aleppo yesterday, if a “humanitarian pause” in the Syrian army’s Russian-backed assault on the city holds.
Despite a drop in violence after the unilateral ceasefire took effect on Thursday, there was little sign civilians were heeding calls to leave opposition-held areas of the city, and Russia accused the rebels of intimidation.
The ceasefire was initially described as lasting just 11 hours, but Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Thursday that it would be extended “by 24 hours”, leaving it unclear when it will end.
East Aleppo, which the rebels captured in 2012, had been under siege by the army since mid-July and faced devastating bombardment by the government and its ally Russia since the launch of an offensive to retake the whole city on Sept 22.
Nearly 500 people were killed, more than a quarter of them children, since the assault began.
More than 2,000 civilians were wounded.
The casualties prompted outrage in the West, with Washington saying the bombardment amounted to a possible war crime.
Russia announced a halt to its air strikes from Tuesday and the unilateral ceasefire from Thursday.
The Syrian army had opened eight corridors across the front line for the more than 250,000 civilians in rebelheld areas to leave, but so far almost none have taken up the offer.
“There has been no movement in the corridors in the eastern district. For the moment, we haven’t seen any movement of residents or fighters,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
There had been no air or artillery bombardment of east Aleppo since the ceasefire began, but sporadic clashes had continued on the front line, some of them near the evacuation corridors.
The observatory reported overnight skirmishes on the front line in the Old City and in al-Zahraa district.
UN humanitarian task force chief Jan Egeland said that Russia, the Syrian government, and rebels had given permission for medical evacuations to start yesterday, adding that the UN also hoped to deliver food to the besieged east.
No UN aid convoy had entered the city since July 7 and food rations amid the rubble of a destroyed building following
on Monday. AFP pic
would run out by the end of October, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday.
The UN was criticised by the Syrian opposition for focusing more on enabling people to leave than providing relief supplies to allow them to stay.
A joint statement from the Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army said UN policy “is flawed, and instead of preventing forced displacement,
it played into the Assad regime’s plans to empty Aleppo”. It accused the world body of becoming a “tool in the hands of Russia”.
Moscow hit back, accusing rebels of preventing residents from leaving.
“The rebels are violating the ceasefire and preventing the evacuation of the population,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his United States counterpart John Kerry by telephone on Thursday. AFP