Tragedy in Turkey and Syria: the death toll from the earthquake is about 25 thousand people

International aid slowly arrived in disaster-stricken areas of Turkey and Syria on Saturday, where rescuers continued to find survivors miraculously surviving among the rubble of the explosion. powerful earthquakewhich killed nearly 25,000 people.

The icy cold in the area makes escape difficult and doubles the punishment for the desperate populace. In accordance with UNat least 870,000 people are in urgent need of food, and in Syria alone, 5.3 million people are left homeless.

But among the death and destruction, rescuers continue to find survivors.

“Is there peace?” Menekse Tabak, 70, asked as she was pulled out of the rubble in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras – the epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked the region – to applause, according to the report. on the air of the state channel TRT is.

In the city hatayAlso in the south, a two-year-old girl was found alive 123 hours after the earthquake, according to the website of the Hurriyet newspaper, but her family could not be found.

The World Food Program has requested $77 million to provide food rations to at least 590,000 earthquake-displaced people in Turkey and 284,000 people in Syria.

Director of the World Health Organization (Mr.WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusarrived this Saturday in the Syrian city of Aleppo, heavily damaged by the earthquake, to visit hospitals and shelters with the Syrian authorities, the official news agency Sana reported.

Upon arrival, the official said he was traveling with about 37 tons of emergency supplies, adding that another package of more than 30 tons of aid would arrive on Sunday.

Red Cross oversight

WHO It is estimated that the earthquake could affect 23 million people in the two countries, “including five million vulnerable people.”

Humanitarian organizations are particularly wary of the spread of cholera, which has re-emerged in Syria.

The Syrian government has announced that it will allow the delivery of international aid to rebel-controlled areas in the northwest of the country, punished earthquake.

Damascus specified that the distribution of aid should be carried out “under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent” with the support of UN.

So far, virtually all aid delivered to the rebel areas is slowly transiting from Turkey through the Bab el-Hawa border post, the only UN-guaranteed one. (AFP)