While the UN declared that the number of victims could “double”, rescuers miraculously continue to extract survivors, despite the crucial period of the sixty-two hours spent since the drama.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
The results of the violent earthquake that occurred on February 6 in Turkey and Syria is 3,224 dead, according to the latest official figures, communicated on Monday, February 13. The earthquake of magnitude 7.8 left 31,643 people dead in southern Turkey, the AFAD public body, the Turkish public management body on Monday, while the authorities have counted 3,581 dead in Syria. The UN said on Sunday that the overall number of victims could “double”.
The rescuers miraculously extracted new survivors from the rubble in southern Turkey. These rescues are unexpected because they intervened far beyond the crucial period of seventy-two hours after the disaster. During the night from Sunday to Monday, seven people were released alive in Turkey, according to the press, including a three -year -old child in Kahramanmaras and a 60 -year -old woman in Besni. Another, 40 years old, was also saved after one hundred and seventy hours in Gaziantep.
In total, 34,717 people are still working on the research of survivors in areas affected in southern Turkey. According to Turkish vice-president Fuat Oktay, who spoke against the local press on the AFAD premises, some 1.2 million people were housed in student residences and 400,000 evacuated from the region.
In Antakya, the antioche of Greek antiquity, after the first three or four days of abandonment, the emergency services are now organized. Basic toilets, without water, have been installed, with the relief of the survivors. The telephone network has been restored in several districts. In Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the earthquake, a strong police and military presence is now visible. Thirty thousand tents were drawn up, while 48,000 people are accommodated in schools and 11,500 in sports halls, according to the Minister of the Interior, Süleyman Soyu.
Bashar al-Assad ready to Consider the opening of new crossing points
In Syria, the situation is particularly complex, and humanitarian organizations are concerned in particular with the spread of cholera, reappeared in the country. “So far we have been lacking in the people of northwest Syria,” said the head of the UN humanitarian agency Martin Griffiths. “They rightly feel abandoned” and we must “correct this failure as soon as possible,” said the diplomat.
Bab al-Hawa, in the northwest of the country, remains the only operational crossing point from Turkey to the rebel areas, also ravaged by the earthquake. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, met the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, Sunday in Damascus. He assured that the latter had been ready to consider the opening of new crossing points to transport aid to rebel areas.
According to a head of the Syrian Ministry of Transport, Suleiman Khalil, sixty-two aircraft in charge of aid have so far landed in Syria. Others are expected in the hours and days to come, from particular from Saudi Arabia.