The earthquake killed more than 20,000 people, including nearly 3,300 in the country led by Bashar Al-Assad, according to Syrian and Turkish authorities.
“We need urgent help. Every second, we lose a life”. Like more than 2,500 other White Helmets, Ismail Alabdullah is trying to help the victims of the deadly earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday February 6. This rescuer is currently deployed in the city of Sarmada, in the northwest of the country, in search of survivors. The earthquake, and its hundreds of aftershocks, killed more than 20,000 people, according to the latest report delivered Thursday evening by the authorities of the two countries.
>> Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: follow the evolution of the situation in our live
Among them, nearly 3,200 people died in the Syrian rebel areas, that is to say those which are not under the control of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. “About a thousand people are still under the rubble”, Ismail Alabdullah told franceinfo on Wednesday. The survivors who lost their homes overnight number in the hundreds. They find themselves homeless and exposed to the cold.
Despite the mobilization of local rescuers, already on site, the lack of emergency and medical equipment is still glaring, because the regions controlled by the opposition forces are deprived of any government assistance. “We need help, we ask for that of the international community (…) to help our people”insisted on Monday the White Helmets on Twitter*.
The Syrian government has also urged the rest of the world to send reinforcements and lift the sanctions on Damascus, although these measures do not prevent the sending of humanitarian aid. France has already announced emergency aid of 12 million euros for the Syrian population, when the UN has assured that it wants to lend a hand. But several factors complicate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to northern Syria, a region already under-equipped with medical resources.
Northern Syria, a deeply divided territory
From a point of view territorial, several actors control the north of the country. As this map shows Washington Post*, the region is divided into four: the territories controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), mainly Kurdish, those managed by jihadists, the border area under Turkish influence and that subject to the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.
In the North-West, the Idlib area, particularly affected by the disaster, is thus controlled by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham. The White Helmets can intervene there, trying in particular to rescue people trapped in the rubble, “but the means are lacking”, warns Firas Kontar, a Franco-Syrian jurist based in France and opponent of Bashar Al-Assad. “We need heavy equipment, rescue, there is a lack of cranes, generators in this area. We also have to heat people on the street and feed them”, he continues with franceinfo.
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To help the victims, there is also a lack of arms. But sending other rescue teams on the spot is made particularly delicate because of the presence of jihadists, specifies Firas Kontar. “There is not an area that is not considered dangerous. Due to the regime’s bombardments”, points the opponent. The Middle East Eye * media, based in London and which brings together independent journalists from several countries, also relayed on Tuesday the remarks of a British MP reporting bombardments the day before north of Aleppo, in Marea, only a few hours after the earthquake. Information confirmed to franceinfo by Ismail Alabdullah.
Another region particularly affected by the earthquake, around the city of Aleppo, is under the control of the Syrian regime. In this area, “these are mainly Syrian NGOs” who intervene, explains Fabrice Balanche, geographer specializing in Syria and lecturer at the University Lumière Lyon 2.
“Everyone helps his camp, we are in a geopolitical conflict.”
Fabrice Balanche, geographer specializing in Syriaat franceinfo
International NGOs are working in other areas of the country, “but without authorization from the Syrian government”. To intervene in the localities controlled by Damascus, the regime conditioned their accreditation on the fact of no longer working in the rebel or Kurdish regions, but “youVery few NGOs have made this choice”, says the geographer. In 2019, only the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council was authorized to work throughout the territory, according to the Lebanese newspaper The Orient by day.
A single crossing point at the Turkish-Syrian border
So how can the international community help without going through the Syrian authorities? The only way to access the northwest of the country is through humanitarian corridors from Turkey, even if “snow and freezing temperatures” complicate the transport of equipment, explained El-Mostafa Benlamlih, coordinator with the UN, Wednesday during a press briefing.
Initially, the United Nations guaranteed the opening of four crossing points. But in 2020, under pressure from Russia and China, allies of the Syrian government, three cross-border crossings were closed. Only Bab al Hawa remains, which limits the influx of humanitarian aid. “This corridor is insufficient in relation to the needs. We are asking for the reopening of the Bab al Salam corridor, near Afrin”pleads Raphaël Pitti, anesthetist-resuscitator responsible for training for Mehad NGO.
The UN assured Thursday that part of the emergency humanitarian aid would finally pass through Bab al Hawa. Information confirmed by the person in charge of the crossing point. He assures AFP that the first aid convoy entered the rebel areas on Thursday morning. By way of comparison, in Turkey, international aid began to arrive as early as Tuesday, with dozens of countries offering their services to Ankara.
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“Long-standing under-resourced” medical infrastructure
However, logistical and human support is essential in northern Syria, because the earthquake has only worsened an already critical humanitarian situation, after more than ten years of devastating conflict in the country. “It’s a crisis on top of a crisis”, summarizes El-Mostafa Benlamlih, believing that“about 10.9 million people” were affected by the earthquake disaster in Syria. “In Aleppo, 30,000 people now live in shelters (schools, mosques…) and these are the luckiest”. The UN lists needs for food and water, fuel, medical equipment, clothing. “70,000 people are fighting against the cold”, he also lamented.
The situation is particularly worrying in the northwestern areas of the country. Just over four million people live there, including nearly 2.8 million in refugee camps. “Nearly 90% depend on humanitarian aid” to survive, notes the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs* (in PDF).
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Relief is coming up against, in addition to the lack of heavy equipment, the shortages suffered by the healthcare structures in the region. “We do not have sufficient medical equipment to deal with a disaster of this magnitude,” laments to franceinfo Maed Badawi, director of the hospital in the town of Binnish, near Idlib. The area does not count “that five hospitals, overwhelmed by thousands of victims, abounds Raphaël Pitti. They have been under-equipped for a long time, in resuscitation equipment, in dialysis, in oxygen.
Medical structures in the area “depend entirely on funding from the international community”, noted Amnesty International* in a report published in May 2022. “Over the past ten months, the amount of international aid to the health sector has fallen by more than 40%, due to the overall reduction in international assistance to Syria”, then lamented the NGO. “There are only 70 intensive care beds for the whole region. The health response must absolutely be reinforced”, pleads Raphaël Pitti today.
“The region was not ready to endure this”
Other structures, transformed over the years and emergencies into hospitals“like schools or great houses, exist, explains Maed Badawi. In our city of Binnish, our hospital was originally a shopping center”. For these makeshift structures, it is difficult to provide a care service commensurate with the situation.
“We urgently need medicines and basic medical equipment, such as bandages or compresses.”
Maed Badawi, director of a hospital in northwest Syriaat franceinfo
Binnish Hospital receives casualties from nearby communities every day. “They are transported by the White Helmets or by the civilians, who do their best to help”, greet the doctor. On Wednesday, 44 people were transported there. “We intervene day and night, we do not stop”, confirms rescuer Ismail Alabdullah. On the phone, he pauses: “The region was not ready to endure this, especially since many hospitals were destroyed by the bombardments of Bashar Al-Assad”.
* These links refer to content in English