Antakya, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that an earthquake last week killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey, the worst disaster since the country was founded 100 years ago.
The death toll is almost certain to continue rising, but many of the tens of thousands of homeless survivors still struggle to meet basic needs, such as finding shelter from the bitter cold. increase.
The number of confirmed deaths in Turkey surpassed his record for the 1939 Erzincan earthquake, which killed about 33,000 people.
Erdogan said 105,505 people were injured as a result of the February 6 he earthquake and its aftershocks around Kahramammaras. Nearly 3,700 deaths have been confirmed in neighboring Syria, bringing the death toll in both countries to over 39,000.
The Turkish president, who called the quake “the catastrophe of the century”, said more than 13,000 people were still being treated in hospitals.
After his five-hour ministerial meeting at his AFAD headquarters in Ankara, Erdogan said his 47,000 buildings, including 211,000 apartments, had been destroyed or damaged and had to be demolished.
Aid agencies and governments are ramping up efforts to bring aid to ravaged regions of Turkey and Syria.
The situation in Syria is particularly desperate, where a 12-year civil war has hampered aid efforts, leading to days of debate over how to get help, let alone how. Some said they did not receive anything. Meanwhile, in Turkey, families flocked to wagons.
The Syrian Ministry of Health announced a final death toll of 1,414 and 1,357 injured in areas under state control.
On Tuesday, the United Nations launched a request for $397 million to provide “nearly five million Syrians urgently needed life-saving assistance” for three months. It came a day after international organizations announced a deal with Damascus to deliver UN aid from Turkey via two more border crossings to rebel-held areas of northwestern Syria, but the need Sex was still pressing. Ahmed Ismail Suleiman has set up a blanket shelter in front of his damaged home in the town of Jinderis, one of the most affected areas in northwestern Syria. Eighteen people slept outside under a makeshift tent because he feared returning his family to a home that might not be structurally sound.
“We’re sitting here, but we can’t lie down and sleep,” he said. “Waiting for a real tent.”
According to City Council Speaker Mahmoud Hafar, residents have been able to pitch about 2,500 tents so far, but about 1,500 households will be forced to leave as nighttime temperatures drop to about -4 degrees Celsius (26 degrees Fahrenheit). I don’t have a shelter yet.
“we are … People still ask when the help will come,” Haffer said.
One woman said the city had a surplus of donated bread and water while tents were in short supply.
In government-held Latakia in the southwest, Raeefa Breemo said only those crammed into emergency shelters seemed to be getting help.
“We have to eat, we have to drink, we have to survive. Our work, our lives, everything has stopped,” Brimo said. Major humanitarian groups welcomed the deployment, but even when the first UN aid convoy of 11 trucks entered northwestern Syria via Bab al-Salaam on Tuesday, logistical problems remained.
