Turkey quake rescue efforts close to ending

| February 20, 2023

Search and rescue efforts after the devastating earthquake in the Turkey-Syria border region have almost all ended, as rescuers move on to retrieve bodies from under the rubble.

Missions to recover people alive have officially ended in nine quake-hit provinces, except Kahramanmaras and Hatay, head of the disaster authority AFAD Yunus Sezer told reporters in Ankara.

The total number of people in Turkey killed in the earthquake has reached 40,689, AFAD said on Sunday.

In Syria, the death toll is reported to be 5,900, although that figure is not being updated frequently. According to the United Nations, 8.8 million people have been affected by the disaster in Syria.

“[The] majority [is] anticipated to need some form of humanitarian assistance,” UN Deputy Syria Representative Najat Rochdi wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “The UN is fully committed to doing more to help all Syrians,” she said.

Activists and aid workers in rebel-held areas in north-western Syria have complained of a lack of UN assistance in the days following the February 6 quakes.

So far, more than 140 trucks carrying UN aid have travelled from Turkey to rebel-held north-western Syria since the disaster, where more than 9,000 buildings were completely or partially destroyed, causing at least 11,000 people to lose their homes.

According to the UN, the most urgent needs of those affected now include shelter such as tents.

The first 7.7-magnitude quake struck Turkey and Syria in the early hours of February 6; another large tremor hit at noon that day and there have been more than 6,000 aftershocks, disaster authority AFAD said.

The devastating earthquake destroyed or damaged around 105,000 buildings and left tens of thousands homeless in south-eastern Turkey.

More than 1.2 million people are believed to have been evacuated from the south-eastern Turkey disaster zone. Over 1 million locals are currently living out of temporary shelters in quake-hit provinces, according to AFAD.

To help victims, the Turkish government called on property owners to provide housing for the earthquake victims and for those who don’t own property to donate money.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Turkey’s southern Adana province on Sunday for his 2-day visit, state broadcaster TRT reported.

In his first ever visit to Turkey as secretary of state, Blinken is expected to meet quake victims and hold talks with Turkish officials over US quake aid and the proposed NATO expansion to include Sweden and Finland, among other topics.