A new UN convoy arrived in Syria on Sunday from Turkey, bringing much-awaited aid to Syrian victims of the earthquake that killed 33,179 people, according to the latest official reports.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed 29,605 people in southern Turkey, Afad, Turkey’s public disaster management body, said on Sunday, while authorities counted 3,574 dead in Syria. According to the UN, the toll could “double”.
Ten trucks crossed the border at the Bab-al Hawa crossing point in northwestern Syria, an AFP correspondent noted, bringing emergency shelter materials with plastic sheeting, blankets, mattresses, ropes, screws and nails, among others.
“Until now we have failed the people of northwestern Syria. They rightly feel abandoned,” said UN relief chief Martin Griffiths. We must now “correct this failure as soon as possible”, he adds in a tweet.
According to an official of the Syrian Ministry of Transport, Suleiman Khalil, 62 planes loaded with aid have so far landed in the country and more have been expected in the hours and days to come, notably from Saudi Arabia.
doomed city
In Jableh, on the Syrian coast, “many families have been separated, the situation is extremely difficult” and the hope of finding people alive is quickly disappearing, testifies Rouba Ahmed Shaheen, 43, member of the medical rescue. “Today, the city is doomed,” she said.
Access to Syria at war, whose regime is under international sanctions, is proving more complicated than for Turkey.
Humanitarian organizations are particularly worried about the spread of cholera, which has reappeared in Syria.
The Damascus government on Friday authorized “the delivery of humanitarian aid to the whole” of the country – including areas held by the rebels.
In Turkey, cases of miraculous rescues well beyond the crucial 72-hour post-disaster period continue to be reported by Turkish relief workers and media.
In Adiyaman, a 23-year-old woman, Elif Kirmizi, was rescued 153 hours after the earthquake, one hour after the rescue of her sister Rabia, a 28-year-old teacher. Their father died in the disaster.
Mustafa Sarigul, 35, was saved at the 149e hour in Hatay by Turkish gendarmes and teams from Italy and Romania, after twelve hours of effort during which the man sang under the rubble to keep his spirits up.
On the diplomatic-humanitarian front, Turkey and Greece have muted their long historical rivalry, heightened by territorial, economic and migratory disputes, in favor of solidarity.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias visited the disaster areas of Turkey on Sunday with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, who gave him a warm welcome.
Athens was one of the very first countries to announce aid to its neighbor, and this visit is the first by a European minister to Turkey since the start of the disaster.
Visiting Kahramanmaras in Turkey, the head of the UN humanitarian agency Martin Griffiths told Sky News on Saturday that the death toll will “double or more”.
“We haven’t really started counting the number of dead yet,” he added.
“Soon the people responsible for search and rescue will give way to the humanitarian agencies whose job it is to take care of the extraordinary number of people affected over the next few months,” said Mr. Griffiths.
Arrest of contractors
Nearly 32,000 people are mobilized for search and rescue operations in Turkey, as well as more than 8,000 foreign rescuers according to the Turkish agency responsible for natural disasters.
The brutal collapse of the buildings, which betrays their poor construction and left their residents with virtually no chance, is angering the country.
Turkish media reported the arrest of a dozen building contractors in the south of the country. Further arrests are expected.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 26 million people may have been affected in Turkey and Syria, including “around five million vulnerable people”, and on Saturday launched an urgent appeal to collect 42.8 million dollars.