A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 hit southern Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday February 6, before being followed by an aftershock of magnitude 7.5 during the day. The toll continues to grow, with thousands of dead and injured, while international aid is organized. “L’Obs” takes stock.
• A shallow earthquake
Turkey is located on one of the main seismic zones of the globe. On Monday, the earth shook on the other side of the country, near the Syrian border, along the Eastern Anatolian Rift, which had not seen magnitude 7 tremors for more than two centuries.
The earthquake was triggered overnight at a shallow depth – about 17.9 kilometers – near the city of Gaziantep and its two million inhabitants. It was caused by a northward movement of the Arabian tectonic plate which “Advance on Turkey”according to Roger Musson, associate researcher at the British Geological Survey, with AFP.
According to the Danish Geological Institute, the tremors of this earthquake were felt as far away as Greenland. The earthquake was followed by a powerful aftershock of magnitude 7.5 in the middle of the day.
• A provisional balance sheet that continues to increase
The joint death toll in Turkey and Syria continued to rise on Monday. It rose in Turkey to 2,316 dead and 13,296 injured, according to data provided by Afad, the Turkish public disaster management body. In Syria, a new report in the evening reported 1,300 dead and 3,400 injured, among the most violent earthquakes to hit the region for nearly a century.
“There is continued potential for additional collapses and we often see numbers eight times higher than the initial numbers”told AFP an emergency situation manager for the European office of the World Health Organization (WHO), Catherine Smallwood. “We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately. That is to say, the first reports of the number of people killed or injured will increase quite significantly in the coming week. »
In Turkey, a seven-day national mourning has been decreed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
• Coming humanitarian crisis?
Relief has been organized since the beginning of the day to help the very large number of people remaining trapped under the collapsed buildings, which number in the thousands.
The rain and snow, which fell in some places in abundance, and the expected drop in temperatures with nightfall made Monday evening even more difficult the work of the relief workers, and the situation of the inhabitants on the street.
Faced with the toll which is expected to increase, the management of care for survivors could also prove to be complex. “People who cannot return to their homes will meet and congregate in communal settings, and that will also pose particular risks if they are not well received, if there is no heating, but also due to overcrowding”according to Catherine Smallwood, fearing the circulation of respiratory viruses.
• Organized international aid
The international community offered assistance throughout the day. The support is mainly aimed at Turkey, which in the morning launched an appeal for international assistance. Syria launched its own at midday. “Our teams are on the ground to assess needs and provide assistance”assured the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.
The EU has activated its “civil protection mechanism”and teams from ten Member States were “quickly mobilized”the Dutch and Romanian teams having already left, according to a press release from the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic.
France is “ready to provide emergency aid to the populations”declared Emmanuel Macron, and “Germany will of course send help”wrote German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, both on Twitter.
On the French side, 139 Civil Security rescue workers are to fly to Turkey in the evening, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. In addition, around thirty volunteers from the association Pompiers de l’urgence internationale, based in central France, will leave there on Tuesday.
In the United States, Joe Biden said on Twitter that he had asked his services to “provide all necessary assistance, whatever it may be”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his war-torn country was “ready to provide the necessary assistance” to Turkey. And even “a large group of rescuers”said his head of diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, still on Twitter.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated that he will send “rescuers” in Turkey and Syria. Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Gulf countries, China, India, Japan, Canada, Israel, Iran, Azerbaijan also announced aid to the two countries to send aid , including emergency workers, to both countries.
