- More than 17,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, officials said.
- Fears are now also rising for the survivors, as aid agencies warn that new snowfall, as well as a lack of water, communications and power, could cause a deadly “secondary disaster.”
- A first UN aid convoy since the quake has now passed into northwest Syria. Western sanctions are complicating efforts to deliver aid to the country, while activists fear the Damascus regime could hamper aid to victims in rebel-held areas.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted to “shortcomings” over the state’s response to the disaster but insisted the situation was now “under control.”
Death toll from Turkey-Syria earthquake surpasses 17,000
A United Nations aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwest Syria Thursday for the first time since Monday’s earthquake in the race to get international help into a region beset by years of conflict and an acute humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) said the convoy, made up of six trucks carrying shelter items and Non Food Items (NFI), crossed through the Bab Al Hawa crossing – the only humanitarian aid corridor between Turkey and Syria.
“The UN cross-border aid operation has been reinstated today. We are relieved that we are able to reach the people in northwest Syria in this pressing time. We hope that this operation continues as this is a humanitarian lifeline and the only scalable channel,” Sanjana Quazi, head of OCHA Türkiye said.
Some 4.1 million people already depend on humanitarian aid in mostly rebel-held northwest Syria.
READ: Turkey-Syria Earthquake Kills Over a Thousand
A top aid official told CNN earlier that efforts to help people in quake-stricken regions of Syria have been “incredibly difficult,” because passage entries along the border were destroyed due to the disaster.
“On top of that, in Syria, this happens in the middle of a conflict zone,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Source: CNN