The UN’s humanitarian director said early Friday that Mr on the road visited parts of Turkey and Syria hit by strong earthquakes earlier this week, a few hours later death toll exceeds 20,000.
According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the official will visit Aleppo and Damascus in Syria, along with Gaziantep in Turkey over the weekend.
“There will be more help, but more, more is needed,” Mr. Guterres told reporters on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the damage from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake surpassed that of the 1999 quake. attack about 60 miles from Istanbul and killed about 17,000 people, according to official figures. Monday’s earthquake is now Turkey’s most dangerous since 1939 and one of the world’s most dangerous for many decades.
Turkey imposes a three-month state of emergency Thursday in 10 provinces affected by the earthquake. In many of the worst-affected areas, a turbulent atmosphere enveloped the ground.
Deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6 with its epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, has become one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century.
In the city of Antakya, where the old town has completely collapsed, the traffic was heavy, the air was smoky with smoke and fire as people tried to stay warm, ambulances and aid trucks arrived relentlessly. Thousands of people have shelter in the white tent in the shadow of a football stadium.
As the humanitarian crisis continues, the possibility of continued seismic activity will pervade the region. Dozens of earthquakes have been recorded in Turkey this week, including several on Friday morning. Experts say large aftershocks, such as those who hit within a few hours of the initial seizure, posture potential risk to the structural integrity of partially collapsed structures in the earthquake zone.
Efforts to provide aid to millions have also been achieved Stress from coldpower outages and shortages of fuel, trucks and other essential supplies.
Aid organizations say the first 72 hours after a disaster are crucial to finding survivors. Yasushi Nakajima, an expert in disaster risk management at Hiroo Metropolitan Hospital in Japan, said that when that deadline passes, as has happened in Turkey and Syria, the medical burden often shifts from local areas. point of disaster to health facilities.
On the other hand, medical facilities that have responded to a disaster since it began will face major problems in terms of staff fatigue, lack of supplies and disruptions. supplies, including fuel and water.
He added: “Lives that could have been saved with a normal health system are being lost like sand from their hands.
Syria, where millions have been displaced by years of civil war, is facing its own differences. humanitarian challenges in receiving aid.
There have been a few breakthroughs so far. Six humanitarian aid vehicle carrying shelter materials and non-food items entered the opposition-controlled area of northwest Syria on Thursday, marking the first major aid delivery to the area since the earthquake. land. International Organization for Migration speak that the items in the convoy could meet the needs of at least 5,000 people.
But Syria has received much less aid than Turkey since the earthquake, in part because border crossings are used on Thursdaysknown as Bab al-Hawa, was the only one to allow UN aid to reach the opposition-held area in the northwest of Syria.
Mr. Guterres said that the biggest obstacle in delivering aid to Syria was accessibility.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the UN would ask the Security Council for permission to expand aid to Syria, adding that the UN was also in talks with the Syrian government to provide more humanitarian aid to opposition-controlled areas in the northwest.
The Syrian government has said that US sanctions against the country have exacerbated the humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake. Those sanctions are not aimed at humanitarian aid.
On Thursday, the US State Department doubled down on refusing to lift sanctions on Syria, emphasizing that humanitarian aid efforts are not impeded by this policy. It also repeated a demand that the authoritarian government of President Bashar al-Assad open more border crossings for aid shipments.
