The devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has already left more than 25,000 dead, according to a new balance released this Saturday (11), but rescue teams continue to search, intensely, for people alive among the rubble.
Officials and doctors said 21,848 people had died in Turkey and 3,553 in Syria since Monday, when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit, bringing the confirmed death toll to 25,401.
The earthquake was the most intense in Turkey since 1939, when 33,000 people died in Erzincan province (in the east of the country). According to the most recent official balances, the main earthquake was accompanied by more than 100 aftershocks in the following days.
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Humanitarian aid has started to arrive in Turkey, but access to Syria, which is in civil war and with the regime under sanctions by the international community, remains complicated. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in turn demanded “an immediate ceasefire” in Syria to facilitate the delivery of aid.
The UN (United Nations) can only send aid to rebel-held areas in the northwest through the Bab al Hawa crossing on the border with Turkey.
According to the United Nations, the roads through this pass are in a bad state, complicating the delivery of aid. The war has also destroyed hospitals and caused electricity and water supply problems in Syria.
“While [a passagem] is fully operational, there will be huge amounts of supplies ready to go” into Syria, said Michael Ryan, WHO (World Health Organization) emergency situation manager. “Today, the earthquake is attracting attention again, but the world forgot about Syria,” he denounced.
Turkish diplomacy said it was working to open two other crossing points “with the regions under the control of the Syrian government, for humanitarian reasons”. The Syrian government, for its part, has announced that it will authorize the provision of international aid to rebel-held areas, with the “supervision” of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent.
The WFP (World Food Programme), a specialized agency of the United Nations, claimed US$ 77 million to bring food to 874,000 people affected by the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.
More than 5 million people in Syria could be left homeless as a result of the earthquake, warned Sivanka Dhanapala, country representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Damascus.
On both sides of the border, thousands of homes have been destroyed and emergency teams are stepping up their efforts, but the chances of finding survivors are dwindling after the three-day period that experts consider crucial.