Turkish Red Crescent joins Syria's Al-Waer evacuation

By Cigdem Alyanak

ISTANBUL (AA) - Around 1,500 people, mainly women and children, have so far left the Syrian city of Homs under a Russian-backed deal between the opposition and Syrian regime, Turkish Red Crescent President Kerem Kinik told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

This first group of opposition fighters and civilians were from Al-Waer -- a district of Homs -- who were evacuated in a convoy of 32 buses to a tent city in Jarabulus late Sunday.

The evacuation was carried out from the area on March 13 under a Russian-backed deal between the opposition and the Syrian government to transfer opposition fighters to Idlib or opposition-held districts in Aleppo’s northern countryside.

The Al-Waer district in Homs has been under a siege for years by forces of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime.

The Turkish Red Crescent is carrying out the evacuation operation for 30,000 civilians from Al-Waer district alongside the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

Kinik said 8,000 out of the 30,000 people, which include the old, civil servants and students would be allowed to stay in Al-Waer; other 7,000 people, who were not on the Syrian regime's list would be allowed to move to other districts and areas of Homs.

"3,000 armed opposition fighters will be sent to the rural areas of Homs; 6,000 civilians to Jarabulus and other 6,000 civilians to Idlib," he added.

Kinik said the evacuation operation would continue for eight weeks, adding the second evacuation operation would start over the weekend on Saturday.

"Around 250,000 to 300,000 people live in camps in northern Aleppo and they cannot produce anything.

“So, from this perspective, they need food, healthcare, housing, hygiene, water, sanitation, psychosocial support, education and need further projects to be productive in life," Kinik said.

He said the Turkish Red Crescent was meeting the displaced people’s basic needs for food, shelter and healthcare, adding that "security, emergency humanitarian support and development assistances" were very important for the Syrians.

"Turkey offers a new humanitarian support model to the world with its holistic approach to northern Syria," Kinik said.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter-million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the United Nations.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.