Calls to end the bloodshed in Aleppo and ensuring civilians are given safe passage out of the city rang out from protests and vigils held across the globe, following the breakdown of ceasefire deal just hours after it began.
APF reports that a new truce deal has since been brokered .
Thousands took to the streets in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which itself saw a bloody three-year siege during the Bosnian War.
More than 13,000 people died during the Sarajevo seige, which ran from April 1992 to February 1996.
In the Netherlands, demonstrators lit candles, while in the German city of Hamburg, protesters with a large Syrian flag called for a ceasefire in front of the Iranian consulate.
The lights of the Eiffel Tower in Paris were switched off on Wednesday to show support for the people of Aleppo.
The monument was plunged into darkness from 8:00 pm local time in what Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said was a protest at the "unbearable" situation for civilians in the city where fighting raged during the day.
A candlelight vigil for the victims of the fighting in Aleppo is held in Dam Square in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 14 December 2016 (AAP) Source: AAP
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World Vision Australia CEO Tim Costello told SBS global protests were an outpouring of emotion.
“The protests are expressing exactly what I feel. We said after Sarajevo, after Srebrenica, never again. And we’re doing it again," he said.
"The utter failure of the international system and international architecture to say American and Russia, with your respective allies, this is humanitarian, outrage has to move from moral positioning to action.
"That’s why the international system exists, and to see it paralysed and hand ringing with outrage, is just a profound failure."
Agencies call for continued aid
World Vision has four districts in east Aleppo to help provide winter-level tents, mattresses and clean water.
Mr Costello said despite his organisation's efforts, aid workers were still "paralysed" by the ongoing fighting between Syrian forces and rebels.
"We aren’t seeing people come out of the 100,000 people we expected, because the ceasefires keep breaking down and we can't get in," he said.
"We’re seeing green buses to bring people out, coming out empty, (because) of the Assad regime. It is utterly heartbreaking. Knowing of that human distress and (seeing) that slaughter of innocent people. Summary executions going on inside east Aleppo.
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"The humanitarian ideal has always been, if you see people in distress, and you can reach them, you must. This is so frustrating because you see people in utter distress. We can reach them and World Vision’s responsibility is always to the safety of your own staff, sending them in knowing there are snipers and bombing after the ceasefire was called, means you can’t send them in.
"So we’re waiting, able to help, paralysed and waiting. This is simply the worse place for any humanitarian."
He said Australians had a big part to play to donate to appeals which would "keep hope alive" for those stuck in Syria.
"Please give, our Syria appeal and other appeals are under subscribed. We have some 12 million displaced people in Syria in a nation of 20 million," he said.
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"The pictures coming out of Aleppo are like Berlin after the Second World War. Those refugees, 5 million outside the country, just want to go home if there’s a ceasefire and security. They don’t want to come here, they want to go home and giving them that hope by saying 'we’ll keep you alive, we’ll give you time and to fund you to rebuild' is what Australians can do."
'Tomorrow might be too late'
Pawel Krzysiek, head of communication at the International Committee of the Red Cross, is in Aleppo.
“Our main concern right now is the safety and the protection of the civilian population. We have seen in the past weeks when we heard the stories of the people who fled eastern Aleppo how much risks these people take; how many impossible choices they have to make in order to reach safety,” he said in a video message.
“They are going through the halls of the destroyed buildings. They have to walk for hours. On their backs they have wounded, or sick. They have their little children. They arrive to the collective shelters with little or no belongings. That is the humanitarian tragedy that is deepening every day.
"We have to do something because tomorrow might just be too late.”
Watch the ICRC video message:
WATCH: Eiffel Tower goes dark for Aleppo
-With AFP
