UN: 400,000 internally displaced in Syria's Aleppo

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

There are 400,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Aleppo -- equivalent to all Syrian refugees in the whole of Europe, the UN’s Syria Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said on Thursday.

"There is a figure, a figure which you need to take into account and which we were confronted with today.

"In Aleppo there are 400,000 IDPs. This is basically the equivalent or maybe more than Syrian refugees in the whole of Europe,” de Mistura said at a news conference in Geneva.

De Mistura said some 30,000 people fled eastern Aleppo in recent days.

Noting that displaced people in Aleppo need humanitarian assistance, de Mistura said 400,000 IDPs would need shelter, especially during winter.

UN Senior Adviser Jan Egeland also said Russia had discussed setting up four humanitarian corridors in Aleppo but added the Syrian regime and Russia had not given permission to the UN to evacuate 400 wounded people from the city.