Security Council approves UN monitors to oversee Aleppo evacuations

The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously called for UN officials and others to be able to monitor evacuations from eastern Aleppo and the safety of civilians who remain in the Syrian city.

The vote came as thousands of people were transported by bus to rebel-held territory in Idlib province, and hundreds from two besieged Shia-majority villages were moved into government-controlled territory in Aleppo.

The 15-member council, on which Russia is a permanent member with vetoing powers, adopted a French-drafted resolution that "demands all parties to provide these monitors with safe, immediate and unimpeded access".

Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main ally, had threatened to veto a first draft presented by France calling for observers to monitor evacuations from Aleppo and report on the protection of civilians in the besieged Syrian city.

But after nearly four hours of closed-door council consultations on Sunday, a new draft was agreed.

Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that Moscow had been in touch with the Syrian government throughout the negotiations and that it had raised no objections to the proposed measures.

"We kept contact with our Syrian colleagues here all the time so they were aware of the process and they did not raise any serious objections to what we delivered," said Churkin.

But it remains uncertain however whether the Syrian government will grant monitors access to the city and international scrutiny of its operations there, which it is conducting in collaboration with Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

"This is a starting point," France's UN envoy Francois Delattre told reporters. "We will be extremely attentive, extremely vigilant."

Aleppo's evacuation resumed overnight on Monday, with reports of thousands of people leaving rebel-held areas of the city and reciprocal departures from two villages besieged by rebel forces in nearby Idlib province.

Around 5,000 people travelled in 75 buses out of Aleppo on Monday, said Ingy Sedky, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

They crossed the front line headed for rebel-held territory elsewhere in northern Syria, after around 350 other people got out during the night.

"We will continue throughout the day – and however long it takes – to evacuate the thousands more who are still waiting," Sedky told the AFP news agency.

Ahmad al-Dbis, who heads a team of doctors and volunteers coordinating evacuations, saw dozens of buses and ambulances arrive at the staging ground west of Aleppo.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said 20,000 civilians had been evacuated from Aleppo so far.

Nearly 50 children, some critically injured, were rescued from eastern Aleppo, where they had been trapped in an orphanage, the United Nations said.

According to the ICRC and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 500 people left in a dawn convoy out of Foua and Kefraya.

Among the residents evacuated from eastern Aleppo was the family of Bana Alabed, who shot to fame with her account of living under siege via Twitter, as well as MEE contributor Zouhir el-Shimale.

Video footage, filmed through the window of a bus by Shimale as he was leaving the city, shows a landscape of shattered buildings devastated by air strikes and bombardment.

"During the trip we were faced by three or four checkpoints by the Russians and the Iranians and the Hezbollah militias,” said Shimale.

READ: Journalist explains his journey on Aleppo evacuation bus

“They were saying you can go back to the regime side and no one will harass you or arrest you but no one listened to them. People were just silent and we moved to the western countryside and no one got hurt or arrested."

Commenting on the evacuation process he said it was a "slow process" with "no order at all" as thousands were left still waiting for evacuation in freezing conditions.

Bilal Abdul Kareem, a journalist still trapped in eastern Aleppo, posted footage on Monday morning showing suitcases and luggage covered in frost following a night that many had spent outside in sub-zero temperatures.