The evacuations of civilians in Aleppo, which include women, children, and injured people, has been ordered to stop on a Friday afternoon.
Furthermore, fear and anxiety elevate as Russia released a statement claiming that all the refugees that are trapped in the afflicted city of Aleppo have been evacuated and only radical armed fighters are left to be 'liquidated' by Syrian government forces, according to NY Times. The International Committee of the Red Cross disputed this claim stating that thousands are still left to be rescued.
"The medical evacuation has only been underway for 24 hours, and there are still large numbers of women, infants and children under five amongst those who need medical care," said Elizabeth Hoff, a WHO Syria representative in Aleppo. "They had to leave the collection area and return to their houses. We hope that the evacuation will resume promptly."
Different sides aimed the blame of the disruption to each other. Syria's State News Agency claimed that the evacuees tried to transport weapons and communication devices. The statement said that the government forces would only resume operations once they follow the agreement.
However, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that militant rebels broke the ceasefire protesting that injured people from the Shi'ite villages of Foua and Kefraya be evacuated too, according to Reuters.
"The evacuation was suspended by the regime and the Syrian regime now is shooting at the entrance point using heavy machine guns," Activist Mahmoud Raslan said in an interview with CNN.
"A warplane is in the sky now and the Syrian regime is trying to advance in al-Sendyanah Bridge. People are gathered in huge numbers and very scared."
Several evacuees who have been turned back inside Aleppo stated that militiamen stopped the convoys and started to take their belongings like cell phones and laptops. One incident took the life of an unarmed man when he confronted the militiamen for being offensive with his wife. They shot him and three other people. Passengers of the convoy narrated that they were forced to lie down, take off their shoes, and give their belongings.
As news of disruption spread out, government forces started to wave the rescue convoys back inside the city stating that evacuation has been halted because of forces breaking the ceasefire.
"There remains tens of thousands of lives that are now concentrated into a very small area of Aleppo, and the last thing anybody wants to see -- and the world will be watching -- is that that small area turns into another Srebrenica," US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
