Tragedy in Turkey and Syria: the death toll from the devastating earthquake exceeded 22,700

This Friday, rescue teams continue to search for survivors among the debris left by the massive earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey on Monday was one of the deadliest in the region, killing more than 22,700 people.

Humanitarian aid began to arrive Turkey but access to Syriain a state of war and with its regime sanctioned by the international community, it is much more difficult.

The war destroyed hospitals and caused problems with the supply of electricity and water in Syriabut the UN can send aid to the rebel areas in the northwest only through the Bab el-Hawa crossing on the border with Turkey.

Turkish diplomacy said it was working on opening two more checkpoints “with regions under the control of the ‘Syrian government’ for humanitarian reasons.”

Shortly thereafter, the Syrian government announced that it would allow international assistance to be provided to rebel-held areas under the “supervision” of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk demanded for his part an “immediate ceasefire” in Syria to facilitate the delivery of aid.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Thursday that he is “on track to Syria”, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, arrived on the same day in Aleppo, in Syria.

“abandoned”

Thousands of homes have been destroyed on both sides of the border, and rescuers are redoubling their efforts, although the chances of finding people alive are dwindling after what experts say is a critical three-day period.

The situation, exacerbated by the icy cold, has led the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish army since 1984, to temporarily suspend its “operations” in Turkey.

Hundreds of rescuers from Qatar, Malaysia, Spain, Kazakhstan, India and other countries arrived in the area.

About thirty miners traveled a thousand kilometers from Zonguldak, near the Black Sea, to Antakya to help in the search.

In that southern city Turkey, an 18-month-old baby and his brother were rescued this Friday, “at the 105th hour” after the earthquake, NTV reports. Both were found alive in the ruins of their house, located in a three-story house.

Two hours earlier, in the same city, a three-year-old girl, who had been badly affected by the disaster, was rescued.

Anger grows Turkey against the government’s response, which was deemed insufficient and belated. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself acknowledged the “shortcomings”.

“People who didn’t die from the earthquake were left to die in the cold,” Hakan Tanriverdi told AFP in Adiyaman province, one of the hardest hit areas.

“No state, no police, no soldiers. What a disgrace! They left us to our fate,” said another neighbor, Mehmet Yıldırım.

This Friday, the Turkish President indicated some sort of guilt. “There were so many damaged buildings that, unfortunately, we were not able to speed up our actions as we would like,” the head of state said during a visit to Adiyaman.

risk of cholera

The earthquake is the most important Turkey since 1939, when 33,000 people died in the eastern province of Erzincan.

The 7.8 magnitude quake, followed by more than a hundred aftershocks, has killed at least 22,765 people, 19,388 of them in Turkey and 3377 in Syria.

The WHO estimates that 23 million people are “potentially at risk of infection, of which about five million.” [son] vulnerable” and fears a health crisis will break out.

Humanitarian organizations have expressed concern about the possible spread of cholera, which has reappeared in Syria.

In addition to the deplorable human balance sheet, financial ratings agency Fitch has estimated that the economic damage from the earthquake will exceed $2 billion and likely reach $4 billion.

The European Union (EU) sent the first rescue teams to Turkey hours after the earthquake, on Monday. But at first he offered only minimal help. Syriathrough existing humanitarian programs, due to international sanctions imposed as a result of the civil war that broke out in 2011.

On Wednesday, the Syrian government formally requested EU assistance, and the European Commission urged member states to give a positive response.

President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma visited earthquake victims in Aleppo on Friday for the first time since the earthquake, the president said.

(According to AFP and EFE)

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