Causes
The Death Toll Of Turkey-Syria Earthquake Will Surpass 56,000: Martin Griffiths Says
The death toll from the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on Monday across Turkey and Syria is most likely to surpass 56,000 according to United Nations emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths.
As the rescue progresses in the disaster-struck areas of both countries, the latest count of dead ones goes over 34,000. According to the Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM, it is estimated that the death toll in Turkey alone has reached over 29, 605 as of Sunday.
While on the other hand, the death toll in Syria is around 3,576 as per the reports released on Saturday by Syrian state media citing the health ministry.
The Death Toll Will Increase Much Higher, As Per Official Report
From the reports by the civil defense group, White Helmets, who completed their search and rescue operations on Friday, it was estimated the death toll will increase much higher as the intensity of the disaster was much higher.
Even with the increasing number of deaths, there are still cases of successfully rescuing people after spending hours trapped under the rubble of buildings.
On Sunday, a 10-year-old girl was rescued after 147 hours in southern Turkey’s Hatay province. Similarly, another 35-year-old man was rescued from the same area from the ruins of an apartment.
Although it’s been a week since the terrifying earthquake in recent decades, rescue workers in both countries are in search of life withstanding the freezing temperature. And as a result of their efforts and hardships, survivors are rescued from the scenes between the debris of the disaster.
According to the United Nations’ top aid official, the aid efforts have failed the people in north-west Syria, because the twelve years of civil war in the region have created a complex political situation.
UN humanitarian head Martin Griffiths stated that the people in these regions who are seriously affected by the disaster are feeling abandoned as they look forward to international help that hasn’t arrived yet.
The disastrous earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday were of the magnitudes 7.8 and 7.5. And this has resulted in the demolition of thousands of buildings across the two countries and shattering the life of people in these places. As of the estimate released by the U.N.
Refugee Agency, around 5.3 million people in Syria are in need of shelter. Also, they believe that the current number of fatalities existing now can rise consecutively in the coming days not only in Turkey but even in Syria.
Even at a time of a great crisis, there are still many other concerns rising in disaster-stricken areas. The head of the International Rescue Committee is very much concerned about the aid efforts in Syria.
David Miliband, president, and CEO of the association stated that the Turkish side of the border has a very strong government and as a result, people here will get massive aid efforts underway.
While on the other hand, the people on the Syrian side of the border were abandoned for the past decade and are still hopeless about a new life.
The rescue team over this region reports that the Syrians are having a great shortage of water, food, medicine, and even their basic hygiene supplies. Now, all they have is some ruins of the memories that they had throughout their lives.
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According to him, the Syrians are going to face a secondary crisis as their aid is blocked across the Turkey-Syria border and as of now, only a single humanitarian crossing point is open. As discussions are going on with the U.N.
Security Council, Miliband is of the belief that they can ask to open up more border crossing points and even ask the U.S. for more financial aid. He urges the world not to leave the people of Syria in distress as they were already exhausted from the civil war happening for decades.
Currently, as there are some security concerns, some of the international search efforts were resumed by Saturday. The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) stated that rescue operations in Turkey have been halted due to the security concerns existing in the area.
Apart from Germany, Israeli search and rescue group United Hatzalah announced that they’ll be leaving Turkey due to the same significant security threat.
Although some countries have backed from the rescue mission, still some international rescue efforts are providing their maximum in the disaster-stricken land.
