Survivors were still being found as the death toll exceeded 33,000; The United Nations acknowledges the “international failure” to help the victims of the Syrian earthquake

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The death toll from the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in the early hours of February 6 (Monday), with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, has exceeded 24,000, making it one of the most devastating disasters in decades. In Syria alone, the death toll has exceeded 3,500. The Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, said that these numbers are expected to rise significantly due to the presence of hundreds of families under the rubble.

It comes in a region already bearing the scars of nearly 12 years of war, which led to food shortages, economic collapse, a humanitarian crisis and, most recently, a cholera outbreak. The country’s national infrastructure had been in crisis for years, and was barely able to support the war-stricken population.

They slept wherever they could: on lightless street corners, in little grassy gardens, next to an elementary school, on the lower slope of one of the oldest Christian churches in the world.

Across Antakya, the ancient capital of Hatay province, the region hardest hit by Turkey’s worst earthquake in nearly a century, thousands have been struggling to make sense of the catastrophe that has turned their lives upside down and left many without a home or property. No memories and, for some, no future here.

Many were struggling to get through another night. The cars were cool to sleep in and too small to fit most families. But they could be much warmer than the tents, which were just a thin layer that masked the total devastation of the people inside.

Either they were still preferred over a tarp, stretched over a coach shelter or attached by poles. No matter how much wood and rubbish the people of Antioch burned to keep their families warm, it was still very cold.

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