Turkey
A man walks in front of a destroyed building in Samandag, south of Hatay on February 16, 2023, ten days after a 7.8-magnitude struck the border region of Turkey and Syria. PHOTO: Yasin Akgul/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations on Thursday launched an appeal for $1 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 5.2 million people affected by the twin earthquakes that killed more than 36,100 in Turkey.
“Now is the time for the world to help them - just as the people of Türkiye have for years helped others seeking assistance,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted.
On February 6, two devastating earthquakes struck southeast Turkey. More than 108,000 people were injured in Turkey and the death toll is expected to rise as bodies are recovered from under the rubble. Thousands of people are living in temporary shelter and many families have been separated and children orphaned.
“The earthquakes hit communities at the peak of winter, leaving hundreds of thousands of people - including small children and the elderly - without access to shelter, food, water, heaters and medical care in freezing cold temperatures,” the UN said in its appeal.
The quakes also toppled buildings across the border in Syria where about 4,400 people died. Aid has been slow to arrive in areas hardest hit by the earthquakes in the rebel-held northwest. Prior to the disaster, just one border crossing between Turkey and Syria’s Idlib province was open to international aid.
The UN, which has sent more than 100 truckloads of aid into Syria in the past week, said on Thursday that it is “continuing to scale up its operation with the plan to utilize all three Turkish-Syrian border crossings, Bab Al-Hawa, Bab Al-Salm and Al Ra’ee, to ensure a constant reach of aid to different districts of north-west Syria.”
“Now is the time for the world to help them - just as the people of Türkiye have for years helped others seeking assistance,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted.
On February 6, two devastating earthquakes struck southeast Turkey. More than 108,000 people were injured in Turkey and the death toll is expected to rise as bodies are recovered from under the rubble. Thousands of people are living in temporary shelter and many families have been separated and children orphaned.
“The earthquakes hit communities at the peak of winter, leaving hundreds of thousands of people - including small children and the elderly - without access to shelter, food, water, heaters and medical care in freezing cold temperatures,” the UN said in its appeal.
The quakes also toppled buildings across the border in Syria where about 4,400 people died. Aid has been slow to arrive in areas hardest hit by the earthquakes in the rebel-held northwest. Prior to the disaster, just one border crossing between Turkey and Syria’s Idlib province was open to international aid.
The UN, which has sent more than 100 truckloads of aid into Syria in the past week, said on Thursday that it is “continuing to scale up its operation with the plan to utilize all three Turkish-Syrian border crossings, Bab Al-Hawa, Bab Al-Salm and Al Ra’ee, to ensure a constant reach of aid to different districts of north-west Syria.”
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