The agreement with rebels has been suspended and fighting is under way in Aleppo. Local sources report bombardments. Thousands of civilians still trapped. Live updates.
17:43 – The organisation Médecins Sans Frontières has issued an appeal to the parties to the conflict "to spare the civilians trapped in Aleppo". "We are outraged," the NGO explained, "by the violence being inflicted on civilians and the passivity shown by all the actors who can do something to stop it. We call on all parties to the conflict to fulfil their duty to protect civilians, both in besieged areas and in those retaken by the Syrian government. All negotiations to secure access for the United Nations and other actors, including MSF, to provide humanitarian assistance in the besieged areas of east Aleppo have been fruitless. In most cases it appears that people have not had the opportunity to flee when and where they wished. It has not been possible to evacuate patients, resupply hospitals or provide crucial assistance to people trapped in the area. All parties involved have been and remain responsible for this failure."
"This is one of the worst crises MSF has witnessed in recent years," said Teresa Sancristoval, head of MSF's Emergency Unit in Aleppo. "We remind all parties to the conflict that even war has rules."
17:33 – Some rebel groups are reportedly blocking the evacuation of civilians from east Aleppo. This is according to the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which speaks of "opposition groups, including the terrorist organisations Fateh al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham, who are allegedly preventing the population from leaving." In addition, "some fighters are reportedly mixing with civilians."
15:41 – Approximately one thousand people are reported to have been evacuated from east Aleppo. According to the Turkish Anadolu Agency, citing the director of the local Red Cross, they are being held up at a checkpoint controlled by Iranian forces.
13:50 – According to the Syrian army, the number of people still trapped in the eastern districts of Aleppo is around fifteen thousand. The reason why the agreement reached yesterday for their evacuation has not yet been implemented is said to be linked to the fact that it is awaiting "validation by all parties, including Iran and Russia."
13:45 – The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militias control the Sheikh Maqsood neighbourhood and some positions in the surrounding areas. A kind of mutual non-belligerence pact exists between them and the Syrian army.
12:50 – Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on television that he will call his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in an attempt to save the ceasefire in Aleppo.
12:05 – Violent bombardments are shaking Aleppo at this moment. Assad's artillery is attacking the last rebel stronghold, as the rebels have evidently not followed through on the surrender announced by Russia. A loyalist army tank has gone into action, according to an AFP journalist on the ground.
11:02 – Witnesses questioned by the Reuters agency speak of fresh bombardments. Explosions heard in the city. The BBC has reached a journalist live on air.
Update 14 December, 10:54 – According to local sources, the agreement reached on Tuesday between pro-government forces and rebels has already been suspended, and the evacuation of civilians has not yet begun. The Russian army announced that fighting has resumed in Aleppo. The situation therefore appears particularly chaotic and difficult to read. 22:35 – The completely blank front page of the Wednesday 14 December edition of the French daily Libération. In the centre, the words: "Here lies Aleppo."
Update 13 December, 22:19 – According to an AFP agency photographer, some buses made available by the Assad government are already in position in the eastern districts of Aleppo to evacuate the civilian population. Local sources report that operations are expected to begin at dawn tomorrow.
Update 21:39 – Rebel fighters, who have been battling government forces loyal to Assad in the eastern districts of Aleppo for months, have agreed to surrender. The militants will in return be allowed to leave the city without having to give up their weapons. A military source has stated that the evacuation of the fighters is expected to begin tomorrow morning at around 5 o'clock.
"I think this is my last message. I am now only waiting for death." Appeals such as this were made throughout the night between Monday and Tuesday from the eastern districts of Aleppo, in Syria, as the battle raged between the government forces of Bashar al-Assad and the remaining rebel fighters. Social networks carried a dramatic sequence of testimonies of violence committed by fighters against the defenceless civilian population. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a desperate appeal, calling for the need to "protect civilians by respecting international humanitarian rules".
The AFP agency reports of "men and women sleeping in the street, lying on their suitcases, with nothing to eat." An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to take stock of the humanitarian tragedy has been requested by a number of diplomatic missions.
Meanwhile, the High Commissioner for Refugees has spoken of dozens of summary executions. "The information we have speaks of people being killed in the street as they flee, or inside their homes. We are extremely concerned for those still in the city," said the body's spokesman Rupert Colville.
There are even reports of men burned alive and doctors killed in the very few medical facilities still in operation. According to information provided to the newspaper 20Minutes by Jean-François Corty, director of the NGO Médecins du Monde, the number of trapped civilians is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000. There is no possibility of escape for them: late this afternoon news emerged of an agreement that had reportedly been reached "under the aegis of Russia and Turkey" to allow their evacuation.
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