Armenia has suspended a humanitarian mission in Aleppo, Syria, after Syrian rebels managed to push government forces out of the city.

Armenia’s Defence Ministry announced the ‘temporary’ suspension of the mission in Aleppo on Saturday, citing the ‘significant deterioration’ of the operational situation in several regions in Syria.

Syria has been engulfed in an all-out civil war since 2011, with Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, becoming the site of a major siege lasting between 2012–2016, resulting in the Syrian regime successfully winning control of the city with Russian air support.

Eight years later Syrian rebels launched a surprise offensive, gaining control of Aleppo and the surrounding area in late November 2024 as part of a larger offensive in Syria’s northwest.

Armenia’s mission in Aleppo was deployed in February 2019, consisting of 83 deminers, medics, and security personnel.

Following the rebel takeover of the city, Armenia’s Defence Ministry said Saturday that the escalation ‘rendered it impossible for the Armenian humanitarian demining and medical team […] to continue their activities’.

They announced the full evacuation of the mission’s personnel on board a military transport aircraft on Friday evening.

Upon its deployment in 2019, the Defence Ministry said that the mission would operate exclusively in regions devoid of military operations.

[Read more: Armenia sends military ‘humanitarian mission’ to Syria] 

The ministry cited several UN General Assembly resolutions regarding Syria, a written request by Syrian authorities, and Aleppo’s Armenian community as the driving factors behind the mission.

According to the Armenian government, up to 100,000 Armenians lived in Syria before the beginning of the civil war, with 60,000 living in Aleppo. As of 2019, Armenia granted asylum to 22,000 ethnic Armenians from Syria. 

The decision to launch the mission was largely criticised by Armenia’s civil society and opposition, who called it ‘unlawful’. The US Embassy also criticised the Armenian government for working with Syrian military forces. 

The logistics of the mission were announced to be carried out with assistance from Russia, the Syrian regime’s biggest ally.

Russia’s then-Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu praised Armenia’s decision to send the mission, saying that Armenia was ‘the first to respond to our calls to help the Syrian people’.

On Sunday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry of Affairs announced that it was closely monitoring the situation in Syria through diplomatic channels and that the Armenian Embassy in Damascus was operating in ‘emergency mode’.

The Foreign Ministry told Armenpress it would make ‘appropriate decisions’ based on how the situation develops.

On Sunday, an ethnic Armenian was reported to have been killed by sniper fire on the road from Aleppo to Salamiyah, south of Aleppo.