Evacuations out of Aleppo resume following intermittent delays

Convoys of fighters and civilians have resumed their slow journeys out of besieged Aleppo in snow and sub-zero temperatures, after government and rebel forces patched up a shaky ceasefire deal allowing residents to leave ahead of the city’s final surrender.

There are only a few thousand people left in the last remaining sliver of opposition Aleppo after more than 25,000 were bussed out to the relative safety of rebel-held countryside in recent days.

But after the latest breakdown in a complex evacuation agreement, they endured nearly 24 hours stranded at checkpoints in freezing temperatures, without food or warmth, according to people on the vehicles and a UK monitor.

There had already been several deaths reported from the cold in recent days, including four babies, as thousands waited in the extreme temperatures for a chance to get out of the city amid slow, intermittent departures.

A UN official said on Thursday that about 300 private vehicles had left east Aleppo overnight and this morning.

Aid groups warned that conditions even for those who made it outside the city were bleak, as snow blanketed Idlib province. It is still a war zone, although the bombing is not as intense as they had endured in Aleppo, and while there are supplies of food and access to medical care, provisions are badly stretched.

“These families have been forced from their homes after unimaginable suffering and are now staying in tents and abandoned buildings in a snow storm, in an area which was already overwhelmed with displaced people,” said Nick Finney, country director for Save the Children.

There are around 60 buses and hundreds of private vehicles waiting to head out of the last piece of land held by rebel fighters. When they have gone, forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad are expected to announce they have taken full control of the city that was Syria’s cultural and economic hub before the war.

It was also the last major urban stronghold held by rebels, and their defeat in Aleppo essentially recasts the opposition as a rural insurgency.

Perhaps the most famous child to have fled east Aleppo, seven-year old Bana al-Abed, was pictured on Wednesday visiting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Abed had given the world a poignant glimpse of the horrors and deprivation of a childhood lived under siege and bombardment through her Twitter account.

Erdoğan, who helped broker the ceasefire deal that allowed her family to leave Aleppo, shared pictures of their meeting with the message: “Turkey will always stand with the people of Syria.”

Even before the official announcement of victory, a handful of Aleppans who had fled to the government-held west at the start of the uprising were pictured returning to the ruins of their old homes.

They were picking through the rubble for old photographs, mementos and furniture, and leaving for less devastated parts of the city with what little they could find.

But many will struggle to find or recognise their former homes when they return. Years of barrel bombs and airstrikes destroyed swathes of the city, and the deprivations of life under siege caused further damage.

Children and adults arriving on the evacuation buses were smeared black with soot, after burning furniture, plastic and anything flammable they could find in a bid to stay warm. Some were so hungry that in the rush to grab food being handed out they lost their families, aid workers said.

“At the meeting point where buses come in from Aleppo, children were in total shock as they saw the fruits and cooked meals being distributed,” said Muslem Essa, from local charity Violet in Idlib.

“Many ran off the buses leaving their parents behind to take an apple or a banana. This has caused children to be separated from their families in the chaos, but some of them hadn’t seen a piece of fruit in five or six months.”

Most are malnourished and many have chronic health problems after months without proper healthcare. Medical facilities constantly attacked. And while they are grateful for relative safety now they are out, many fear they have been removed as part of an effort by Assad’s forces to shift the demographic balance in Aleppo, and may never return.

“We did not want to leave our land, but they used every weapon available to force us out,” said Abu Mohammad, a father of four from east Aleppo. “Now they have prepared a prison for us in order to besiege us and bombard us,” he added, speaking to AFP in a camp hosting around 100 displaced families.

People waiting on the streets have shared pictures of frost forming on the luggage of people waiting to leave, and families huddled round fires desperately trying to keep warm. Few want to seek shelter for risk of missing their last chance to leave.