Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing support to the humanitarian evacuation of east Aleppo, Syria, and yesterday, medical and logistics teams conducted a first assessment in the area. Doctors supported by MSF inside east Aleppo are safe and they are taking part in the evacuation of the sick and wounded.

MSF has sent 17m³ of medicines and medical materials to Aqrabat hospital, where wounded evacuated from east Aleppo are being taken. MSF's warehouse is located six kilometres away in Atmah and in addition to the 45 tonnes of medical supplies that are there ready to go, 700 non-food item kits are already in Atmah and 1,000 more should arrive soon.

Three MSF teams visited Sarmada and Al Atareb today (16 December) to assess the situation of those newly displaced people and to identify their primary healthcare, food and shelter needs. Medical staff in contact with MSF had reported that people were arriving in bad condition after having lived under siege in east Aleppo for five months.

Thousands of civilians are still waiting to leave east Aleppo and, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the evacuation is expected to take several days. Security incidents stopped the evacuation today when buses carrying civilians were shot at in Alrashdeen and had to turn back.