The humanitarian chief of UN (United Nations)Martin Griffiths, stated that the death toll of the earthquake last monday (6) in Syria and Turkey can fold compared to the 28,000 deaths reported so far.
“It’s really difficult to estimate very precisely because you have to get under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double, or more,” Griffiths said in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicenter.
“We already deal with many conflicts around the world. […] But losing 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000 people in one night, we don’t even see that in these conflicts. It’s scary,” he added yesterday, Saturday (11), in an interview with Sky News.
Six days after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that occurred on the morning of last Monday (6)the provisional death count between the two countries stands at 28,191 people: 24,617 in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria.
The UN also warns that by 5.3 million people lost their homes in Syria alone and that at least 870,000 are in urgent need of food in both countries.
A WHO (World Health Organization) estimated that 26 million people were affected by the earthquake and launched an urgent appeal to raise 42.8 million dollars to finance immediate health needs.
Syria suffers devastation after earthquake