The race against time and cold continues in Turkey and northern Syria to extricate survivors of the violent earthquakes that ravaged the region on Monday, killing several thousand people. International aid, announced en masse by many leaders on Monday, is beginning to arrive at the scene of the disaster.
A balance sheet that grows heavier hour by hour
According to the latest official report, twenty-four hours after the first of the three tremors, with a magnitude of 7.8, more than 7,800 people were killed, including 5,894 in Turkey according to the public disaster management body ( Afad) and 1,932 in Syria. More than 20,434 people were injured in Turkey alone, 3,640 on the Syrian side.
In total, twenty-three million people are “potentially exposed, including around five million vulnerable people”, warned the World Health Organization (WHO).
Afad also reports 5,775 buildings destroyed, underlines public television TRT, but more than 11,000 could be permanently damaged.
Consequence of the tremors: a violent fire broke out on Monday in the Turkish port of Iskenderun, in southern Turkey near the Syrian border. The flames continued to spread on Tuesday evening.
VIDEO. Turkey hit hard by two violent earthquakes
Rescuers fought hard in the cold, in the pouring rain or snow, sometimes with their bare hands, to save every life that could be saved. The bad weather that hangs over Anatolia complicates the task of rescue and makes the fate of the survivors even more bitter. According to Erdogan’s statements, more than 53,000 rescue workers are mobilized.
Ghanaian football player Christian Atsu, missing since Monday, was found alive under the rubble on Tuesday morning. “Christian Atsu was released injured,” a manager of his club Hatayspor said on Radyo Gol, as quoted by RMC Sport. In total, more than 8,000 people have been pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey, according to Vice President Fuat Oktay. Rescues of which the daily Daily Sabah revealed some images.
The first international aid arrives
International aid to Turkey should, however, begin to arrive on Tuesday with the first teams of rescuers, from France and Qatar in particular. In total, Paris sent 136 people to the site, whose planes landed on Tuesday morning. US President Joe Biden has promised his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan “all the help needed, whatever it is”.
The French planned to go in particular to Kahramanmaras, epicenter of the first earthquake, a region difficult to access and deeply bruised, buried under the snow. Two American detachments of 79 rescue workers each were preparing to go there on Monday, according to the White House.
China announced on Tuesday the sending of aid of 5.9 million dollars, including specialized rescue workers in urban areas, medical teams and emergency equipment, according to state media in Beijing. According to the Turkish president, 45 countries have offered their help.
In Syria, the political situation complicates aid
On the other hand, in Syria, the appeal launched by the authorities in Damascus was mainly heard by its Russian ally, promising rescue teams “in the next few hours”, while according to the army, more than 300 Russian soldiers are already on the ground. places to assist with rescue.
The UN also responded, but insisted that the aid provided would go “to all Syrians throughout the territory”, some of which is not under government control. In these rebel-held areas, bordering Turkey in northwestern Syria, at least 700 dead have been counted.
Taking advantage of the chaos created by the earthquake, around 20 suspected fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group escaped from a military prison in Rajo, controlled by pro-Turkish rebels.
The crossing point for delivering aid from Turkey to rebel areas of Syria was affected by the earthquake that struck the two countries, the UN said on Tuesday. “The cross-border operation itself has been affected,” said spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Jens Laerke, during a press briefing in Geneva.
More than 300 aftershocks since Monday
The World Health Organization has said itself that it expects the worst and fears “tolls eight times higher than the initial numbers”. During the day on Monday, no less than 185 aftershocks were recorded, following the first two tremors: one of 7.8 which occurred in the middle of the night (04:17 local time), the other, of magnitude 7.5, at mid -day, both in southeastern Turkey.
In the night from Monday to Tuesday, nearly fifteen tremors were recorded by the USGS, the American institute for monitoring earthquakes. These displayed magnitudes between 4 and 5.5 on the Richter scale. A total of 312 aftershocks have been recorded since Monday morning, said the Turkish vice-president on TRT.
Seven days of national mourning in Turkey
The Turkish head of state has declared national mourning for seven days: “Our flag will be hoisted at half mast until sunset on Sunday, February 12, 2023, in all our national and foreign representations”, he specified. on Twitter.
The Turkish president also declared a state of emergency at midday on Tuesday in the ten provinces affected by the earthquake “to allow the (relief) work to be carried out quickly”. This measure is in place for three months.
Schools will also be closed for the week. They must indeed be used for the emergency reception of survivors whose buildings have been destroyed, as announced by Vice-President Fuat Oktay.
“A total of 338,000 citizens have already been placed in dormitories, universities and national education institutions,” he said, quoted by TRT. But for fear of new earthquakes, many residents preferred to spend the night outside, as in Sanliurfa, in the Turkish southeast.
This earthquake is the largest in Turkey since the earthquake of August 17, 1999, which caused the death of 17,000 people, including a thousand in Istanbul.