More than 22,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, officials said on Friday.
Rescue workers are still racing against time to pull survivors from the rubble. Some successful rescues have occurred in Turkey, but an aid group said hope is fading in parts of Syria.
The delivery of urgent supplies to impacted rebel-held areas of northwest Syria has been complicated amid a long-running civil war. The Syrian government approved sending aid to those territories Friday, but did not provide a timeline.
Survivors, many of whom are homeless, could face “a secondary disaster” as cold and snow lead to “worsening and horrific conditions,” WHO said as quoted by CNN.
In the meantime Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said more than 141,000 rescue personnel are working on the ground in 10 earthquake-struck provinces in Turkey.
“We have more than 141,000 personnel, including foreign teams, working on the ground in 10 provinces. The Disaster Management Agency and other institutions are offering tents, containers, and prefabricated buildings, so that they can meet the needs quickly,” he said during a speech in the city of Malatya.
Erdogan said that Turkish institutions and organizations are providing hot meals to relief teams for the survivors of the earthquake through mobile kitchens and soup kitchens.
“We have allocated an initial fund of 100 billion Turkish Liras ($5,309,405.33) for all this work,” he said, adding that from “the AFAD (Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management) emergency fund, we are starting to offer 15,000 Turkish Liras ($796.51) per household in relocation aid to citizens whose homes have collapsed or moderately or severely damaged.”
Erdogan also said those who had their own homes destroyed will receive 5,000 Turkish Lira ($265.50) per month in aid and those who have had rentals destroyed will get 2,000 Turkish Lira ($106.20) per month. /Argumentum.al
