Image: AAREF WATAD (AFP)
In Turkey alone, the number is 35,418, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, according to the state news agency Anadolu Ajansi. 5,900 deaths were recently reported from Syria.
Worst natural disaster in a century
The European office of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for comprehensive help for the many earthquake victims in the Turkish-Syrian border area. WHO Regional Director Hans Kluge described the quake as the worst natural disaster in the region in a century. The need for help is huge and growing by the hour, he said at an online press conference on Tuesday.
Around 26 million need support
Around 26 million people in Turkey and Syria need humanitarian assistance. “Now is the time for the international community to show the same generosity that Turkey has shown to other nations worldwide over the years,” he said on Tuesday. The country is home to the largest refugee population in the world.
Despite dwindling hope, the search for survivors continued on the eighth day after the earthquake. According to media reports, four people were found alive under the rubble in southeastern Turkey. In the province of Kahramanmaras, helpers rescued two 17 and 21-year-old brothers on Tuesday morning, the state news agency Anadolu Ajansi and the broadcaster CNN Türk reported. They were therefore 198 hours under the rubble.
In the province of Adiyaman, an 18-year-old who was also buried for 198 hours was rescued. According to Anadolu Ajansi, in Hatay province, a 26-year-old woman was rescued alive under the rubble after 201 hours, and a 35-year-old woman after 205 hours. The information could not be checked independently.
“We are witnessing the worst natural disaster in the WHO region of Europe in a century,” WHO Director Kluge said of the earthquake, which killed tens of thousands of people. The full extent and the true costs are still not clear. Addressing those affected, he emphasized: “Your suffering is immense, your grief runs deep. The WHO is at your side in the hour of need – and always – at your side.”
An estimated one million people have lost their homes in Turkey, and around 80,000 are in hospitals, according to the authorities. This puts a great strain on the health system – which itself was severely damaged by the disaster.
Kluge called on all stakeholders from the government and civil society to work together to ensure the cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid between Turkey and Syria, as well as within Syria. The WHO counts a total of more than 50 countries in its Europe region. In addition to the EU, these also include numerous countries to the east of it, such as Turkey, and several Central Asian countries.
According to diplomats, President Bashar al-Assad wants to open two more border crossings to Turkey to improve humanitarian aid in Syria. Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra’ee should be open for three months, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Monday, according to several diplomats. Griffiths is currently in Syria and met Assad on Monday.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed Assad’s decision: “Opening these border crossings — along with facilitating humanitarian access, speeding up visa approvals and facilitating travel between hubs — will allow more aid to arrive faster.”
Andreas Knapp, Caritas Secretary General for Foreign Aid, traveled to the crisis area in Aleppo on Friday. “Aid in Syria has started, but is still insufficient,” he said in an interview with APA. “International solidarity” is now needed. “We cannot leave Syria alone,” Knapp appealed.
“The suffering of the people is indescribable,” reported Heinz Wegerer, Humanitarian Aid Coordinator at Hilfswerk International, on Tuesday in Vienna about the situation in the crisis area. He only returned to Austria from Turkey on Monday. “The smell of corpses is getting stronger,” said the emergency worker.
Fast and uncomplicated help is now urgently needed. In the first few days, the local population had to provide most of the humanitarian aid. “We will make sure that people can keep up the help and have staying power,” emphasized Wegerer. Up to 50 aid agency employees are to ensure this in Turkey. Wegerer also reported problems with emergency aid. The state civil protection authority Afad “is obviously overwhelmed with the coordination”.
The day after the earthquake, neighbors in need started a call for donations, and at the same time the organizations in both countries started to help. This focuses on the absolutely essential: emergency shelter, water, food, mattresses and blankets. All eight neighbors in emergency aid organizations are working with local partner organizations in Syria and Turkey, according to a broadcast on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the UN children’s fund UNICEF warned of the catastrophic situation for millions of children who urgently need humanitarian aid. The total number of boys and girls affected remains unclear, but according to UNICEF, 4.6 million children live in the ten provinces of Turkey affected by the earthquake. More than 2.5 million children are affected in Syria.
“The children and families of Turkey and Syria are facing unimaginable hardships in the wake of these devastating earthquakes,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director on Tuesday. “We must do everything in our power to ensure that all those who survived this disaster receive life-saving assistance, including clean water, sanitation, basic nutritional and medical care and psychosocial support for children. Not only now, but also in the long term.”
According to data from satellites, the severe earthquakes may also have long-term geological consequences. “There appears to have been significant subsidence in the coastal town of Iskenderun, causing flooding, while the quake has put many hills across the country at serious risk of landslides,” the European Space Agency said. The broadcaster NTV reported last week that buildings in the Turkish coastal city had to be evacuated because of flooded streets.
In the early morning of February 6, the first 7.7-magnitude tremor shook the Turkish-Syrian border region, followed hours later by a second 7.6-magnitude tremor. Since then there have been more than 2,400 aftershocks. Ten provinces are affected in Turkey – there is now a three-month state of emergency. More than 100,000 volunteers traveled to the earthquake region to help. Some of them have since returned to their homeland.
Experts specializing in natural disasters estimate the economic damage from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria at more than 20 billion dollars (18.72 billion euros). Only a fraction of this – a good one billion dollars – is insured, according to an initial estimate by the US company Verisk Analytics (formerly AIR Worldwide), which was published on Tuesday.
Source: Nachrichten
