TIL Desk/World/UN– United Nations/ The UN Security Council will meet behind closed doors tomorrow to discuss the crisis in Aleppo after civilians began evacuating and Syrian forces moved to assert full control over the city. France requested the urgent consultations, set for around midday (1700 GMT), to push for international observers to be sent to the city to monitor the situation and ensure deliveries of humanitarian aid.
“In these very dark days in Aleppo, it is critically important to have international observers under the surveillance of the UN to oversee the situation,” French Ambassador Francois Delattre told.
After months of intense fighting, Syrian forces moved in the past month to crush the remaining pockets of rebel opposition in the country’s second city, which has been divided between rebel- and government-held districts since 2012.
UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien will brief the council on details of the evacuation that began earlier Thursday with a convoy of ambulances and buses crossing into a government-held district in southern Aleppo.
