Mr. Griffiths was speaking in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş, where recovery efforts are underway amid frigid temperatures.
He meets families who have lost their homes to the disaster and listens to stories of their shock and devastation.
“I’m here to make sure these people aren’t forgotten either,” he said.
Hope for the survivors
The head of the UN’s relief force also spoke to search and rescue teams as they carried out their operations in the devastated downtown areas of the city, amid damaged buildings. collapsed with rubble digging equipment.
United Nations teams are on the scene and more than 130 countries have dispatched responders, sniffer dogs, experts and other personnel.
“There has never been an international, Turkish response to a natural disaster like we see here in these terrible days,” Mr. Griffiths said.
He praised the courage of everyone, including parents, who are working around the clock to rescue their families and children from the wreckage – “waiting for another hour, one more person alive.” left over”.
humanitarian assistance
It is estimated that more than 20,000 people were killed in the double earthquake that struck southeast Türkiye and northern Syria early Monday morning.
Millions more have lost their homes, including Syrians displaced by the 12-year war in their homeland, and thousands of refugees who have fled across the border.
For Mr Griffiths, the next phase will be caring for those affected by the tragedy.
“And today I met some of them,” he said, “who have lost their homes, their children have no school, no food, no money, who depend on generosity. of the Turkish people, the Turkish government and the international community.”
Mr Griffiths is expected to visit the UN-mandated cross-border operation to Syria south of Türkiye on Sunday before heading there.
The UN and its partners will also make an appeal to the two countries.
In a video on his Twitter, Mr Griffiths said, “I hope what we will see is a generous, immediate and urgent international response to the humanitarian needs we have seen for organizations that help people in these cities to rescue those who are alive. From death.”
heartbreaking conditions
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday.
He wrote in a post on his official Twitter account: “It breaks my heart to see the conditions that survivors are facing – cold weather and access to shelter. , food, water, heat and medical care are extremely limited.”
In another tweet, Tedros recounted how he met two babies, Nour and Omar, who lost their parents in the earthquake.
“There are no words to describe the pain they are going through. Grateful to colleagues and partners for giving them the care, comfort and love they needed,” he wrote.
