What there is to know
This life is over now.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday (14 February) described the earthquakes that devastated southeast Turkey and northwest Syria as “the worst natural disaster in a century” to hit a European country. “We are still measuring the extent,” added WHO European branch director Hans Kluge during a press conference. The UNO warned on Sunday that the number of victims of the catastrophe continues to rise and could even double. As of Tuesday night, it totaled 39,106 dead: 35,418 officially in southern Turkey, while authorities have identified 3,688 in Syria.
More than seven million children affected. In Turkey, a total of 4.6 million children lived in the ten provinces affected by the two earthquakes. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected. Unicef fears “several thousand children have been killed”.
Finally, humanitarian aid to Syria. Damascus announced on Monday that it would open two new border crossings with Turkey, initially for three months, to speed up the arrival of aid supplies. Until then, only one border crossing, that of Bab al-Hawa, had been open to access the rebel-held areas of that region. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s decision, which “will enable faster aid”.
Hundreds of thousands of homeless people still face hunger and cold. According to the Turkish government, 1.2 million people were accommodated in student dormitories, more than 206,000 tents were erected and 400,000 victims were evacuated from the devastated areas.
The toll continues to rise. At least 35,331 people died according to the latest reports from the authorities on Monday evening. According to Afad, Turkey’s public civil protection agency, there are 31,643 dead in southern Turkey, while Syrian authorities have recorded 3,688 dead.
Rare Survivor. According to press reports, seven people were released alive in Turkey during the night from Sunday to Monday, including a three-year-old child in Kahramanmaras and a 60-year-old woman in Besni. Another, 40, was also rescued after 170 hours in Gaziantep.