Five days after the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria, the number of deaths was updated, which has already risen to more than 28,000, Turkish media reported this Saturday.
As rescue operations continue, local authorities confirmed the discovery of more bodies, bringing the death toll to 28,000,
Likewise, the rescuers continued throughout this Saturday finding survivors among the rubble, five days after the tremors and despite the severe weather conditions.
The icy cold in the area makes rescues difficult and seriously exacerbates the suffering of the population. As detailed by the UN, at least 870,000 people urgently need food and, in Syria alone, 5.3 million people were left homeless, the AFP agency reported.
“Is the world still there?” Menekse Tabak, 70, asked as she was pulled out of the rubble in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras in the southeastern Anatolia region, the epicenter of the magnitude 7.8 quake, according to a report. video of the state channel TRT Haber.
In the city of Antioquia, in the Mediterranean region, a two-month-old baby was rescued 128 hours after the earthquake, the government agency Anadolu reported.
In addition, the official Turkish media reported that a two-year-old girl, a pregnant woman and a father with his four-year-old son were rescued. In southern Turkey, families mourned in a cotton field turned cemetery, where an endless line of corpses arrived to be hastily buried.
International aid is slowly trickling into Turkey and Syria, where relief workers continue to find survivors who miraculously managed to hold out among the rubble after Monday’s massive earthquake.
The director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived this Saturday in the Syrian city of Aleppo, hard hit by the earthquake, to visit hospitals and shelter centers with the Syrian authorities, reported the Sana official agency.
A team of @WhiteHelmets to provide humanitarian assistance in the face of the tragic consequences caused by earthquakes.
They will work together with the Turkish Disaster Management Agency. Argentina thus reaffirms its solidarity foreign policy ???? pic.twitter.com/8YY0ih3h1j
– Santiago Cafiero (@SantiagoCafiero) February 10, 2023
The official said that he traveled with about 37 tons of emergency medical supplies, adding that another round will arrive with more than 30 tons of aid.
“The water supply and other services have been affected, people are exposed to diarrheal diseases and other health problems, especially mental health problems,” the director warned.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program requested 77 million dollars to provide food rations to at least 590,000 people displaced by the earthquake in Turkey and 284,000 in Syria.
In addition, the UN Human Rights office on Friday urged all parties in the affected area, where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate, to allow humanitarian access.
In this sense, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, announced that it was suspending its armed struggle to contribute to recovery work.
For its part, the Syrian government reported that it will authorize the supply of international aid to areas controlled by rebels in the northwest of the country, hit hard by the earthquake.
Until now, practically all the aid supplied to the rebel areas transits slowly from Turkey through the border post of Bab al Hawa, the only one guaranteed by the UN.
For the shipment of aid to Turkey, a border crossing with Armenia was opened this Saturday for the first time in 35 years, the official Turkish agency Anadolu expanded.
According to the Turkish agency for emergencies and natural disasters, about 32,000 people are mobilized in the rescue operations, as well as more than 8,000 foreign rescuers.
Meanwhile, thousands of people sleep in tents or in cars and gather by bonfires to warm up in the midst of the low temperatures, for fear of returning to their homes or because their homes no longer exist.
In Turkey’s southern Hatay province, a two-year-old girl was found alive 123 hours after the cataclysm, the local daily Hurriyet website reported, but her family could not be found.
After five days of the quake, the deadliest since 1939 in the region, the initial shock gives way in Turkey to anger at the government’s response and the poor quality of construction.
The authorities estimate 12,141 buildings destroyed or seriously damaged.
Turkish police arrested 12 people on Saturday for the collapse of buildings in the provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa and the Diyarbakir prosecutor issued arrest warrants for 29 people.
This Friday, a real estate developer who was trying to flee after the collapse of one of the luxury residences he built was arrested at the Istanbul airport.
Faced with criticism of the government’s management, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized.
“There were so many damaged buildings that unfortunately we were not able to speed up our interventions as we would have liked,” the president said during a visit to Adiyaman.
Among the many tragedies of the earthquake, a group of 24 Cypriot children between the ages of 11 and 14 were in Turkey for a volleyball tournament when their hotel was demolished.
Turkish media say that 19 people from the group, which also included 15 adults, were confirmed dead. Ten of the bodies have already been repatriated to their homes in Northern Cyprus.
