Rebel fighters and civilians wait to be evacuated from a rebel-held sector of eastern Aleppo, Syria December 17, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

GENEVA (Reuters) - The evacuation of the rebel-held enclave of east Aleppo resumed late on Sunday night after three days of delays, a U.N. official in Syria told Reuters.

“Evacuations are on. Buses and ambulances are leaving east Aleppo now,” the U.N. official said in an email message, adding that the first people left east Aleppo at around 11 p.m. (4 p.m. ET).

The official had no immediate information about a planned simultaneous operation to evacuate people from two Shi’ite villages near Idlib that are besieged by mostly Sunni rebel forces.