The corporate contribution of Nkr5 million ($578,000) from the Norwegian giant is being funnelled to aid agencies the Red Cross and Red Crescent that are co-ordinating the ongoing evacuation of civilians from rebel enclaves in the east of the city, as well as other rebel-held areas.

The effort to evacuate tens of thousands of residents — many of them children and those wounded in the fighting — in a procession of buses resumed this week after being disrupted by gunfire.

However,