A number of civilians have left the opposition-held east of Syria’s Aleppo city on Saturday through a “humanitarian corridor” leading to the government-held west, state media has reported.
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State media broadcast footage on Saturday purporting to show civilians, mostly women and children, boarding buses to leave eastern Aleppo, in the first reported movement of people since Russian Federation announced a plan to open up safe passages on Thursday.
Dozens of families have started to trickle out of war-ravaged Aleppo, days after the Syrian army announced it encircled the city and cut off rebel supply routes, according to reports.
United Nations special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday that the “clock is ticking” for residents there, estimating that essential supplies would run out within three weeks, reported France24. There are estimated to be more than 300,000 people still in the city, according to councils and aid groups working there.
The media agency also said that some residents fear that the proposed corridors are meant to restore government control over parts of the city that have been in rebel hands since 2012.
On Thursday, the Syrian army and the Russian backers said they had identified three safe passages out of rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo for civilians, and one safe exit for the rebels who would want to surrender themselves.
But the humanitarian corridors announced by Russian Federation have been met with suspicion by residents, as well as countries including the United States.
The US has suggested the plan may be an attempt to force the evacuation of civilians and the surrender of rebel groups in the city.
The corridors would seem to mark a turning point in aid delivery in Syria, where the government has for years denied access to global aid groups, swiped essential supplies from convoys and even attacked them.
The Observatory said that “a number” of civilians had left the east of the city through a passage in the Salaheddin area.
Shoigu also announced that under orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, in response to a personal request from US Secretary of State John Kerry, Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate General Stanislav Gadjimagomedov was going to Geneva with a group of experts, in order to develop joint measures aimed at stabilization of the situation near Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that people have left opposition areas but had no numbers.
The report stopped short of giving an exact number of the evacuees, but the process is apparently ongoing.
The Syrian opposition claims the passageways are part of a government plan to recapture the whole of Aleppo.
Much of Aleppo, the country’s largest city and a vital economic hub, has been reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland.
Yesterday’s military announcement triggered an uproar from worldwide humanitarian aid NGOs, who warned that starvation for the 250,000 civilians estimated to still be in that part of the city would soon follow.
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“The brutal message to our people is: leave or starve”, Kodmani said.
