UN chief calls for Aleppo evacuation to resume
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Syrian parties to resume the evacuation of civilians from Aleppo after operations were suspended in the battered city.
"Aleppo is now a synonym for hell," Ban said in his final news conference before he steps down as UN chief on December 31.
The Syrian government suspended the evacuation of civilians and fighters from Aleppo on Friday, leaving thousands of people trapped and facing an uncertain fate.
The opposition accused the government of suspending the operation in a bid to secure the evacuation of residents from two villages under rebel siege.
It is unclear how many people remain in eastern Aleppo, with tens of thousands fleeing to territory held by the government or Kurds in recent days but perhaps tens of thousands still inside.
"I feel very much regret that we had to stop this operation at this time," said Ban.
The United Nations is "urging the parties to take all necessary measures to allow safe resumption of this evacuation process," he added.
Under a deal reached with Syria and backed by Russia and Turkey, evacuations began from the last remaining pocket of rebel opposition in Aleppo on Thursday, but were halted in the early hours on Friday.
Thousands of people were allowed to leave the city, including 194 patients who were taken to hospitals in Idlib, western Aleppo province and Turkey for treatment, said Ban.
The UN Security Council was due to meet behind closed doors to hear a briefing from UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien on the situation in Aleppo and to discuss a French proposal to send observers.
"The immediate priority is to save lives, to stop the massacres and to avoid a new Srebrenica," French Ambassador Francois Delattre said, referring to the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at the hands of Bosnian Serbs during the Balkan wars.
The fall of Aleppo will hand President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory in the nearly six-year war that has killed more than 300,000 and displaced half of the country's population.
"The carnage in Syria remains a gaping hole in the global conscience," said Ban.