83 civilians evacuated from Syria: UN

Some Syrian people on two buses followed by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent's vehicles evacuate Syria's battleground city of Homs on Friday.

Over 80 people were evacuated from Syria’s embattled Homs City on Friday after having survived there for nearly two years, and more people are expected to leave under a three-day truce, a U.N. spokesperson said.

“The United Nations can confirm that 83 people were evacuated from Old Homs City today, during a three-day humanitarian pause agreed between the parties to the conflict,” Xinhua quoted Farhan Haq, the acting deputy U.N. spokesperson as saying during a daily news briefing.

“The people — women, children and the elderly — were then delivered to places of their choice, escorted by (the) United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff,” Mr. Haq said.

U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Valerie Amos, welcomed Friday’s operation as “a breakthrough, and a small but important step towards compliance with international humanitarian law”.