A few glimmers of hope. Rescuers have pulled more survivors from the rubble, a week after the powerful earthquake that killed more than 33,000 people in Turkey and Syria, according to a report expected to worsen further, according to the UN.
Augustin, survivor of the earthquake in Turkey: “I heard the first sirens of the emergency services more than four hours after the tremors”
These rescues seem unexpected, well beyond the crucial period of 72 hours after the disaster, like this woman and this young boy, emerged alive from the rubble after seven days since the devastating earthquake last Monday.
Stranded 163 hours under the rubble
Seven-year-old Mustafa was rescued in Turkey’s southeast Hatay province, while 62-year-old Nafize Yilmaz was released in Nurdagi, also in Hatay province, the news agency reported. national Anadolu early this Monday, January 13. Both had been stranded for 163 hours before being rescued on Sunday.
More than 20,000 dead in Turkey and Syria: why is the toll so heavy?
A member of a British rescue team posted a video on Twitter on Sunday showing a rescuer going through a tunnel created in the ruins of the same city and pulling out a Turkish man, stranded for five days.
And in the southern town of Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the earthquake, excavators dug and excavated the ruins, while victims, huddled around a fire, awaited news of their loved ones.
“They feel abandoned”
The situation is particularly complex in Syria, where Bab-al Hawa, in the northwest, remains the only operational crossing point from Turkey to the rebel areas, also devastated by the earthquake.
Trucks, with on board enough to make emergency shelters using plastic sheeting, blankets, mattresses, ropes or even screws and nails, crossed the border. Insufficient aid, admitted the UN.
“Until now we have failed the people of northwestern Syria”acknowledged the head of the UN humanitarian agency, Martin Griffiths, on Twitter. “They rightly feel abandoned” and it needs “correct this failure as soon as possible”.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday, saying that the latter had shown himself ready to consider the opening of new crossing points. to deliver aid to rebel areas. He indicated “be open to the idea of considering cross-border access points for this emergency”the head of the WHO told reporters.
Moving balance sheet
According to the latest official reports, the earthquake of February 6, of magnitude 7.8, killed at least 33,186 people: 29,605 in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria.
“It’s hard to give an exact toll because we have to go under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double, or more”said Martin Griffiths, visiting the Turkish town of Kahramanmaras on Saturday.
The United Nations has warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals in Turkey and Syria. Up to 5.3 million are currently thought to be homeless in Syria alone.
Syria: “In Idlib, it’s a terrible humanitarian disaster”, after the earthquake
Nearly 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, WHO said on Saturday, appealing for donations of $42.8 million to fund immediate health needs.
On the diplomatic-humanitarian front, Turkey and Greece have muted their long historical rivalry, heightened by territorial, economic and migratory disputes, in favor of solidarity. Athens was one of the very first countries to announce aid to its neighbor, and this visit is the first by a European minister to Turkey since the start of the disaster.
