HOMS-
83 civilians were evacuated on Friday from the government sieged city of Homs following the talks launched two weeks ago between rivals to try to end the country’s civil war.
The long awaited move was meant to have been a relatively straightforward opening step in the peace talks, which resume on Monday in Geneva with little prospect of resolving core grievances of a conflict which has killed 130,000 people.
It marked the start of a planned three-day humanitarian ceasefire, but even as it took place, activists said they feared for the fate of both evacuees and those left behind.
Under the Homs deal, women, children and old men were allowed to leave the Old City, which has been cut off by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, while humanitarian supplies will be allowed in to those who remain.
“The United Nations can confirm that 83 people were evacuated from Old Homs City today,” said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq.
“The people – women, children and the elderly – were then delivered to places of their choice, escorted by United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff.”
In a statement, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos also called for immediate access to nearly 1.6 million others throughout the country who have been without regular food or medical supplies for many months.
Buses ferried dozens of weary-looking evacuees, accompanied by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, to a meeting point outside Homs where aid workers, soldiers and police were gathered. The World Food Programme said many appeared malnourished.
“They were living on leaves and grass and olives and whatever they could find,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said.
The WFP said it had trucks ready to take a month’s supply of food on Saturday to an estimated 2,500 people trapped in the rebel-held heart of the city.