Geneva / Kabul (ICRC) - Six staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been shot and killed in Afghanistan. Two staff members are unaccounted for.
Damascus/Geneva: The operation to evacuate civilians and fighters from East Aleppo was finalized this evening, after a week marked by stops and starts and increasingly bad weather.
Early this morning, Monday 19th December, all sides to the conflict gave renewed security guarantees to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Both organizations were able to resume evacuating the thousands of people in need from Eastern Aleppo City.
Thousands of people including women, children, the sick and injured, remain trapped in eastern Aleppo city waiting for the evacuation operation to continue. They waited throughout the night in freezing temperatures, close to the front line and in constant fear and anxiety.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria, Marianne Gasser, has said it could take days to complete the evacuation operation in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The first two evacuations, led by the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, went ahead on Thursday.
STATEMENT FROM ICRC HEAD OF COMMUNICATION PAWEL KRZYSIEK, SYRIA - CURRENTLY IN ALEPPO:"Since days in Aleppo, we've seen enormous enormous suffering of civilians affected by the recent escalations of fighting. For over weeks, thousands of people have fled eastern Aleppo to the western side of the city. Thousands are still living in collective shelters where the humanitarian situation is extremely dire.
Thousands of civilians' lives are in danger as frontlines close in around them in eastern Aleppo. As the battle reaches new peaks and the area is plunged into chaos, thousands with no part in the violence have literally nowhere safe to run.
Damascus/Geneva: Nearly 150 civilians, most of whom were disabled or in urgent need of care, were evacuated late night from a hospital in the Old City of Aleppo, in a joint operation by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Nearly 150 civilians, most of whom were disabled or in urgent need of care, were evacuated late last night (7 November) from a hospital in the Old City of Aleppo, in a joint operation by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
As the battle for Aleppo intensifies, 20,000 people have fled their homes over the past 72 hours. In the East, there have been intensified attacks on the neighbourhoods of Masakan Hananoo, Jabal Jabro and Sakhour. The majority of those fleeing are families, many with babies and young children. Looking for a safe place, the main collective shelter is in the Jibreen, southeast of Aleppo, where an old factory is being used to house over 8,000 people.