Death Toll in Turkey Nears 30,000

Quake-Hit Syrian Areas Desperate for Aid

Date: 12 February 2023 - 21:39

News ID: ۱۱۲۳۶۱

KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey (Dispatches) -- The death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to 33,000 on Sunday, with the United Nations warning that the final number may double.
Officials and medics said 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 33,179.
Rescuers pulled a seven-month-old baby and a teenage girl from the rubble on Sunday, nearly a week after an earthquake devastated both countries.
Tens of thousands of rescue workers are scouring flattened neighborhoods despite freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid.
Security concerns led some aid operations to be suspended, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake in Turkey, according to state media.
But miraculous tales of survival still emerged from amid the destruction and despair.
“Is the world there?” asked 70-year-old Menekse Tabak as she was pulled from the rubble in the southern city of Kahramanmaras -- the epicenter of Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor -- to applause and cries praising God, according to a video on state broadcaster TRT Haber.
A seven-month-old baby named Hamza was also rescued in Hatay more than 140 hours after the quake, while Esma Sultan, 13, was saved in Gaziantep, state media reported.
The United Nations has warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless.
Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the World Health Organization (WHO) said as it launched a flash appeal on Saturday for $42.8 million to cope with immediate health needs.
It warned that dozens of hospitals had been damaged.
Turkey’s disaster agency said more than 32,000 people from Turkish organizations are working on search-and-rescue efforts. There are also 8,294 international rescuers.
Clashes have also been reported and the UN rights office on Friday urged all actors in the affected area -- where Kurdish militants and Syrian rebels operate -- to allow humanitarian access.
Austrian soldiers and German rescue workers called off their searches for several hours on Saturday

in southern Hatay, citing a difficult security situation amid firing between local groups.
Aid has been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took a flight full of emergency medical equipment into the quake-stricken city of Aleppo on Saturday.
Tedros toured damaged areas of the city and met two children who lost their parents in the earthquake.
“There are no words to express the pain they are going through,” he tweeted.
Damascus said it had approved the delivery of humanitarian assistance to quake-hit areas outside its control in Idlib province and a convoy was expected to leave on Sunday. The delivery was later postponed without explanation.
In the Syrian capital, the transport ministry said 57 aid planes had landed in the country this week.
Earthquake aid from government-held parts of Syria into militant-controlled territory has been held up by “approval issues” with one takfiri group, a United Nations spokesperson said on Sunday.
Of the 3,500 deaths so far reported in Syria the bulk occurred in the northwest, in territory largely held by terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
The Syrian government last week said it was willing to send aid to the northern zone.
A Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) source told Reuters the group would not allow shipments from government-held parts of Syria and that aid would be coming in from Turkey.
“We won’t allow the regime to take advantage of the situation to show they are helping,” the source said.
A spokesperson for the U.N.’s humanitarian aid office told Reuters “there are issues with approval” by the group, which the UN and the United States classify as a terrorist organization, without giving further information.
Earlier on Sunday UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said people of northeast Syria had been failed and “rightly feel abandoned”. “
An aid convoy from Syria’s Kurdish-led northeastern region carrying fuel and other aid was also turned back on Thursday from the northwest, where Turkey-backed rebels reign.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorize the opening of new cross-border aid points between Turkey and Syria. The council will meet to discuss Syria, possibly early next week.
Turkey said it was working on opening two new routes into rebel-held parts of Syria.
Officials say 12,141 buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged in the earthquake.
Turkish police on Saturday reportedly detained 12 people, including contractors, over collapsed buildings in the southeastern provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa.