REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GENEVA -- The senior advisor to the UN special envoy for Syria said Thursday that the UN is prepared to monitor and assist evacuations from the last rebel-held enclave in Syria's city of Aleppo. "We do hope that today we start the last and successful attempt of the evacuations of the troubled city," Jan Egeland told press here after a weekly humanitarian taskforce meeting.
"We will do as much as we can to be close to and with and for those who are evacuated," he added.
According to the diplomat, a three-pronged approach is expected to see the medical evacuation of wounded and sick as well as the evacuation of vulnerable civilians and opposition fighters take place. While invited to monitor operations, the UN was not part of the agreement, the fruit of direct negotiations between parties to the conflict.
According to Egeland, most evacuees are expected to go to opposition-controlled Idlib. An undetermined number may also end up in neighbouring Turkey. "We stand ready to accompany those who are being evacuated not only from east Aleppo but all the way to Idlib... that will be the destination of most of the people evacuated," he explained.
Once Syria's commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided roughly in two since 2012, with western parts under government control and eastern districts held by rebels. Buses carrying rebels started to leave eastern Aleppo on Thursday afternoon, as part of a deal to evacuate all the rebels from Aleppo city in northern Syria, state TV reported.
Green-colored government buses started leaving the few remaining rebel-held areas in southeastern Aleppo city, as part of a deal concluded recently between Turkey and Russia for the evacuation of rebels and their families out of the last remaining strongholds in eastern Aleppo, according to the report. The move was supervised solely by the International Committee of the Red Cross, without presence of the United Nations staff, said the TV.
The buses were leaving through the Ramouseh road, the main government road into Aleppo, since the international road had long been closed due to rebel control on some parts of it. Ambulances carrying the ill and wounded were also seen leaving alongside the buses.
The Russians and Syrians claimed to take the responsibility of securing the rebel convoys out of Aleppo. Buses were heading to rebel-held areas in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo.
About 15,000 people, including 4,000 rebels, will evacuate on Thursday, as part of the Russian-Turkish deal. According to the deal, the rebels will have to surrender their weapons, except personal ones.
The TV said the Syrian army has seized weapon stashes in eastern Aleppo, including two million mortar shells, 2,000 Grad missiles and other heavy arms. The deal also stipulates that both parties should observe a truce during the evacuation.
In exchange for the evacuation in eastern Aleppo, rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib will allow civilians to leave the besieged Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa. Buses carrying people from the two towns have already started leaving Idlib in tandem with the departure of rebels from Aleppo.
With the evacuation, the Syrian army will take over the whole Aleppo city, as it has already controlled 99 percent of the rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the city.
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