The death toll in Turkey and Syria from the earthquake reaches 41,000

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The total death toll in Turkey and Syria from last week’s powerful earthquake has risen to more than 41,000, but only a handful have yet to be rescued from the rubble.

On Wednesday, two women were pulled from rubble in the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, and a mother and two children were rescued in Antakya nine days after the earthquake. The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the rescue operation in Antakya came 228 hours after the quake.

Authorities say the millions of people who survived the quake need humanitarian aid, as many survivors were left homeless in near-freezing temperatures in the winter. Rescue operations are now few and far between.

With much of the area’s sanitation infrastructure damaged or disrupted by the earthquakes, health authorities face the daunting task of trying to ensure people now remain disease-free.

People in war-torn Syria are also facing new challenges, said Mirjana Spulgaric-Eger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Syrian men mourn each other in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, February 15, 2023.

In a statement after her visit to Syria in the past few days, she said: “For more than a decade, people across Syria have suffered the devastation of armed conflict. When the February 6 earthquake hit the region, communities suffered massive levels of destruction regardless of any side. “From the front line they were in. Family and friends have been killed, homes destroyed, people homeless again. Medical care, safe drinking water, and reliable sources of food supplies immediately become critical to survival.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that 35,418 people were killed in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake near the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras on February 6, making it the deadliest quake in Turkey’s history.

The earthquake, which Erdogan has called the “catastrophe of the century,” destroyed tens of thousands of buildings and rendered an equal number uninhabitable, leaving scores of residents without shelter from the frigid winter temperatures. The authorities have arrested several building contractors and accused them of violating Turkish building codes.

On Wednesday, the United Nations confirmed that three of its Turkish employees had died in the quake.

Meanwhile, more than 5,500 deaths have been confirmed in neighboring Syria, according to figures compiled by the United Nations humanitarian agency and the state-run Syrian News Agency. At least 1,400 people have been killed in government-held areas, while another 4,400 have been killed in rebel-held northwest Syria.

Relief efforts are increasing across Syria

Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations are trying to scale up operations in Syria to meet the overwhelming needs.

The UN Population Fund’s regional director said that across Syria there are 40,000 pregnant women due to give birth in the next three months.

“Many of the facilities we visited are already depleted or damaged or both,” Leila Baker, UNFPA’s regional director for Arab countries, told reporters via video link from Aleppo. “There’s a stockpile of drugs out there that are used to treat very basic things like the flu, not to mention something as complex as C[esarean]-to divide.”

She had just visited a maternity hospital in Aleppo, once a thriving city, now reeling from the effects of 12 years of civil war and an earthquake. She said all the suites were full and the facility lacked the basics, like bed sheets. Exhausted staff were working 18-hour shifts in an effort to help as many women as possible.

A health worker checks an earthquake-damaged boy inside a mobile clinic in the rebel-held town of Jandris, Syria, February 14, 2023.

In temporary shelters, many mosques and schools, Baker said there are no toilets.

“For women, many of whom are pregnant, they face difficult circumstances,” she said.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched an appeal on Tuesday for $24 million to cover urgent needs for the next three months.

Separately, 22 World Food Program trucks carrying canned food and mattresses crossed Wednesday into northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa border point from Turkey. WFP has also distributed ready meals and other food items in government-controlled areas, including the governorates of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia. On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) delivered shelter and non-food items through the newly reopened Bab al-Salam crossing.

The United Nations says 117 trucks have crossed into the opposition-held northwest since aid began on February 9.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched a $397 million appeal for the earthquake response in Syria, adding that a similar appeal is being prepared for Turkey.

VOA Turkish Service and VOA UN correspondent Margaret Bashir contributed to this report, which includes some information from The Associated Press and Reuters.

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