Dozens of Orphans Among Thousands Evacuated From Eastern Aleppo
Some of the children are critically injured, UNICEF said.
— -- A group of orphaned Syrian children who pleaded last week to be evacuated from the last rebel-held enclave of eastern Aleppo has left the besieged area.
The 47 orphans are now in Aleppo’s opposition-held western countryside, waiting to be relocated to Turkey, a source with the Afkar Foundation, which oversees the underground orphanage that housed the children in eastern Aleppo, told ABC News.
The orphans, some of whom are in critical condition, are among thousands of children who have been evacuated from eastern Aleppo in recent days, according to UNICEF.
“This morning, all 47 children trapped in an orphanage in east Aleppo were evacuated to safety, with some in critical condition from injuries and dehydration,” Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement.
“The evacuation of these orphans, along with thousands of other children from east Aleppo in the past days is a glimmer of hope amid a grim reality for the children of Syria.”
The Syrian American Medical Society also confirmed that the orphans have been evacuated to safety.
In a video obtained by ABC News last week, the orphans pleaded to be allowed to leave the besieged part of Aleppo.
“We have not been able to leave because of the airstrikes and we are scared of the continuous shelling,” one 10-year-old girl says in the video, surrounded by other children at the orphanage. “All we want is to live like any other child in this world.”
The girl is one of the 47 children who lived at the eastern Aleppo orphanage, which was forced to move underground to protect the children from the dangers of regular airstrikes. The orphans are between the ages of 3 and 14, and have moved to the orphanage either after losing their parents or when their parents could no longer care for them.
“Today might be the last time you see me and hear my voice,” the 10-year-old girl says in the video. “Please help us get out of Aleppo.”
In September, ABC News profiled the underground orphanage in eastern Aleppo, where dozens of children have sought refuge from the devastating war.
Long-awaited evacuations from eastern Aleppo began Thursday, but broke down the next day before the orphans had a chance to leave. The children were told to turn back when they reached an evacuation checkpoint, the source with the Afkar Foundation said.
"We hope to eventually get the children to Turkey, where we are working on setting up another orphanage," he said.
He asked not to be named out of fear of repercussions.
Evacuations from eastern Aleppo resumed today after a deal was reached to also allow 4,000 civilians to leave Foua and Kefraya, two pro-government Shiite villages, besieged by rebel forces.
About 5,000 people were bused out of the besieged, rebel-held part of the area to the western countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria. Close to 14,000 people, including more than 4,000 fighters, have now left rebel-held Aleppo since Thursday, according to the Observatory.
At the same time, convoys of 500 evacuees, including sick civilians and orphans, left Foua and Kefraya, two pro-government Shiite villages, surrounded by opposition forces, the Observatory and the ICRC said. More buses are expected to arrive in the two villages to continue evacuations throughout the day.
The U.N. Security Council met in New York today and voted unanimously for the immediate deployment of U.N. observers to former rebel-held eastern Aleppo, which France says is crucial to preventing "mass atrocities" by Syrian forces and militias.
Before the war, Aleppo was Syria’s largest city with a population of 2 million. The city had been divided into the rebel-held east and the government-held west since 2012. In recent months, the Syrian government, with help from Russia, Iran and other allies, intensified its airstrikes on eastern Aleppo and tightened the siege in an attempt to gain full control of the area, which was rebel-held until recently. Gaining control of the eastern neighborhoods is a strategic victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.