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Clashes, bombings leave 51,000 people newly uprooted from Syria's Aleppo

Xinhua, February 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Humanitarian agencies now estimate that more than 51,000 people from Aleppo city and other areas in northern Syria were displaced following heavy clashes and airstrikes by the government of Syria, allied forces and armed groups.

That was disclosed by UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric at a news briefing here Thursday.

"This includes some 8,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the camp in the Bab Al Salam border crossing," Dujarric said at the news briefing. "It is believed that the majority of those displaced are women and children."

Sources on the ground report that people are moving north towards the border and population movement to and from other areas of Aleppo and Idleb remain extremely dynamic, according to the spokesman.

In addition to the ongoing response, the United Nations has also reiterated its request for access to cross-line deliveries to reach people in need in eastern parts of Aleppo City, western rural Aleppo and Afrin., while urging the government of Syria to grant access without delay, he said.

Also, an estimated 120,000 people are trapped in northern rural Homs after supply roads were cut in mid-January, he said. "Several cases of acute malnutrition among pregnant women and children have been reported, as well as deaths related to lack of medical care."

"The last UN aid convoy reached rural northern Homs in October," Dujarric said. "We call on access to these areas to be granted without delay."

There were 89 civilians among those killed since the beginning of the month, said reports, quoting the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as the source.

The Syrian army has made sweeping progress in Aleppo, capturing key towns from the Turkey-backed rebels, aiming to close the borders with Turkey, from which many foreign jihadists are infiltrating Syria.

A day earlier, Syria's Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban said the aim of the army's advances in Aleppo is to liberate cities and village seized by terrorists for nearly three years and to control the borders with Turkey. Endit