Iraq News

UN observers on ground to monitor east Aleppo evacuation

The UN said Thursday (December 22nd) that it had deployed dozens of observers in east Aleppo to monitor the last stage of an evacuation, which is clearing the way for Syria's army to retake the city, AFP reported.

"Thirty-one staff are now assigned for monitoring," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, said, adding that the observers included both national and international staff members.

"They are all on the job right now," he said.

The announcement came as the evacuation of opposition fighters and civilians from east Aleppo appeared to be reaching its final hours.

"A very large, dangerous, difficult and complex evacuation is going into its final phase today," the head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told reporters in Geneva.

He said that as of Thursday morning, some 35,000 people had left Aleppo.

"It is very complex," he said, stressing the importance of having UN monitors on site.

"Presence means protection," he said.

Laerke said all the monitors had been deployed at the crossing-point into Ramussa, the government-held district of southern Aleppo through which evacuation convoys have been leaving.

"This is a 24-hour operation, so we are taking them in and out in shifts," he explained, adding that there was a "rotation so that we man (the crossing-point) constantly, because the movement has been constant".

The monitors had seen desperate situations as people continued to pour out of east Aleppo, braving a snowstorm and freezing temperatures, Laerke said.

"It has been a very difficult night. The weather is really harsh, and people are leaving in hundreds of private vehicles at different levels of disrepair," he said, saying the evacuation had been stop and go, as cars broke down and people were forced to get out and push.

Egeland meanwhile said that more than 200 buses had been used for the evacuation, and more than 750 cars and trucks, many with flat tires or no fuel, but crammed full of people.

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