East Aleppo civilians in dire need of immediate evacuation

According to Aljazeera reports, Ceasefire reportedly holding in Syria’s Aleppo, but evacuation of civilians and rebels delayed for unknown reasons.

An agreed evacuation of rebels and civilians from the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo has been delayed, according to activists in besieged parts of the city and a monitor.

Busloads of people were due to begin leaving on Wednesday morning as part of a deal with the government, whose forces have effectively taken control of the entire city after weeks of heavy fighting.

No rebel or civilian had left eastern Aleppo as of 5am (03:00 GMT), according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group that relies on a network of sources in the country to monitor the war.

The group did not give a reason for the delay of the evacuation. One Syrian rebel official told the Reuters news agency that pro-government Shia militias were obstructing the departure of people from opposition-held districts in a claim that could not be independently verified.

Zouhir Al Shimale, a journalist in east Aleppo, confirmed the delay, adding that the streets were mostly empty in the morning.

“People here are shocked [by the delay],” he told Al Jazeera. “We didn’t sleep last night waiting to leave.”

Explaining that civilians are fearful that the evacuation could be yet delayed further, Shimale said: “No one knows what the regime will do.”

Outside the scope of the evacuation agreement, the Russian government said at least 6,000 civilians were evacuated from eastern Aleppo and 366 rebels laid down their weapons and surrendered within the last 24 hours.