Dozens of vulnerable orphans are among those who have been evacuated from Aleppo as a mass evacuation effort gets back on track.

The 47 children - some of whom were in a critical condition and dehydrated - had been at an orphange near the front line but are now in rebel-held countryside west of the city.

TV Images showed some in a van at the al Rashidin holding centre and the Syrian American Medical Society Foundation (SAMS) also tweeted pictures.

They had appeared in a YouTube video last week asking for help.

UNICEF spokeswoman Malene Jensen said they were being fed, clothed and treated by doctors, but she warned many more were still in danger inside Aleppo.


We're happy to share that the 47 orphans who pleaded for their evacuation from E. #Aleppo last week were safely evacuated to #Idlib. pic.twitter.com/fCw2dGYjxC — SAMS (@sams_usa) December 19, 2016

Convoys of buses were again streaming out of the east of the city on Monday.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said 4,500 had been evacuated since midnight and some 20,000 in total since a ceasefire started last week.

The buses are heading to the area west of Aleppo, which is largely controlled by the rebels.

Aleppo Twitter girl speaks after city evacuation

Ten buses carrying the sick and wounded also headed towards Aleppo from two besieged villages, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Foua and Kafraya are under government control but are surrounded by rebel territory and have been under heavy attack.

More than 2,000 wounded and sick people are meant to leave the Shia villages as part of the ceasefire deal.

'Evacuee buses' burning in Syria

"Complex evacuations from East Aleppo and Foua & Kefraya now in full swing. More than 900 buses needed to evacuate all. We must not fail," tweeted Jan Egeland, who chairs the UN aid taskforce in Syria

The evacuations comes a day after buses due to take people out of the area were attacked and burned.

Shia militias, fighting for the government, are demanding people be allowed to leave in exchange for the Aleppo evacuations.

:: Bana Alabed, seven-year-old who tweeted from Aleppo, is evacuated

The evacuations from Aleppo come after several days of delays.

People have been forced to spend several nights outdoors in freezing temperatures after the ceasefire arrangement temporarily stalled.

Image: Al Foua and Kefraya, and the evacuation route out of Aleppo

"Some evacuees told us that a few children died from the long wait and the intense cold while they were waiting to evacuate," aid worker Ahmad al Dbis told the Reuters news agency.

Thousands of civilians are still trapped in eastern Aleppo after Syrian government forces defeated rebels in the city.

The UN Security Council has unanimously backed a resolution to send monitors to oversee civilian evacuations.

It demands they get "safe, immediate and unimpeded access" and France said it was critical to prevent "mass atrocities".

Image: People had to wait in freezing conditions for the evacuations to start again

Aleppo was divided between government and rebel-held areas for all of the nearly six-year-long war.

However, a rapid advance from mid-November by the Syrian army and its allies - who include Russia - forced the insurgents out of most their territory within weeks.

