Geneva, (IANS) : At least 31,500 civilians have been displaced within Aleppo since fighting between warring factions escalated the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

Over half (18,000) of these, who have been forced to flee their homes have gone to Jibreen, a government-held district of western Aleppo, Xinhua news agency cited an OCHA statement on Friday.

A further 8,500 have fled to a Kurdish area while 5,000 have been displaced within east Aleppo which has been under siege for almost five months, the UN body added.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), around 60 per cent of those displaced are children.

Though unable to reach civilians who have not left eastern parts of the war-torn city, the UN said Thursday that it is able to provide much needed food and medical aid to the displaced.

OCHA also said that the UN had acknowledged a Russian proposal to open four humanitarian corridors servicing east Aleppo.

After discussions with Moscow, the UN hopes to use these corridors to carry out medical evacuations while bringing much needed relief items to east Aleppo if safety guarantees are provided by all parties to the conflict.