More than 50,000 people perished in Turkey and Syria in the February 6 earthquake, according to a report obtained by AFP from several sources, and reassessed upwards on the Syrian side.
In Syria, the death toll is 5,951 dead, according to a report compiled on Tuesday from cross-checks from several sources.
The latest Turkish death toll, provided on Sunday by the Turkish Public Disaster Management Agency (AFAD), is 44,374 dead.
Thus, the total death toll from the earthquake that struck the two countries is 50,325.
The earthquake devastated several regions in the north and west of Syria, fragmented by nearly twelve years of a conflict which left nearly 500,000 dead and displaced millions of people.
In areas under government control, the Syrian Ministry of Health recorded 1,414 deaths, a balance sheet that remained unchanged.
In areas beyond the control of Damascus, bordering Turkey, local authorities reported 4,537 dead.
A health official in these regions, Maram al-Sheikh, told AFP on Tuesday that this assessment was “almost definitive, the majority of the victims under the rubble having been found”.
It was established in cooperation with one of the local partners of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Assistance coordination unit (ACU), al-Sheikh added.
The UN retained the same number and indicated that it was based on ACU data.
The toll includes, according to al-Sheikh, all of the rebel areas affected by the earthquake, controlled by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the northwest, or by pro-Turkish Syrian factions in the north. .
Since February 6, AFP has relied on the report published by the White Helmets, volunteer rescuers in rebel areas, who list the only victims found by their teams.
Al-Sheikh said the assessment of the authorities he represents was based on data collected from hospitals, medical centers, the Civil Defense, as well as local councils, which documented the burial of the victims. without being transferred to hospitals.
Before this new count, the previous toll retained by AFP in Syria was 3,688 dead.