Despair reigns in northwestern Syria. Eight days after the earthquake that destroyed dozens of buildings, the victims are left to fend for themselves in the rubble. Humanitarian aid arrives in dribs and drabs due to political instability and international sanctions against the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Humanitarian organizations describe a real human catastrophe, after 12 years of war and an earthquake that wiped out the country’s meager reconstruction efforts. Syria feels abandoned by the rest of the world.
“It is too late to find survivors. International aid is insufficient and the country simply does not have the means to cope with a disaster of this magnitude,” said Moutaz Adham, Oxfam’s director for Syria, with a sigh.
Without excavation equipment, without tractors, without cranes, rescuers began to search the rubble with their bare hands, he says. “People are tired, exhausted, exhausted. This is true for government, for the private sector and for civil society. »
This Syrian of origin speaks to us on a virtual platform live from Aleppo, the country’s largest city, where he arrived three days ago. He has drawn features and a dark face. The news is bad. Just two months ago, in an interview at DutyMoutaz Adham had sounded the alarm: the country was bogged down in a crisis with no way out, in the virtual indifference of the rest of the planet.
Before the earthquake, nearly 90% of Syrians lived below the poverty line. More than 12 million of them did not know what their next meal would be. Two million children were deprived of school. Disorganization and violence continued, despite a lull in the armed conflict.
Cold and hungry
The earthquake that hit Turkey and northwestern Syria has deepened the misery. “The disaster is growing,” sums up the Oxfam representative, in English he learned in the United States. He now lives with his family in Damascus.
For eight days, the streets of Aleppo have been filled with people who are cold, hungry and struggling to survive. The temperature drops below freezing point in the Syrian winter.
“Many people live with friends, with family, in tents along the streets or even in cemeteries. Some sleep in their car,” says the humanitarian manager.
The earthquake destroyed 54 buildings in the Aleppo region, but it will be necessary to raze hundreds of others whose structure was damaged, underlines Moutaz Adham. Local engineers estimate that between 10% and 30% of the city’s buildings will need to be rebuilt. Thousands of residents refuse to return to these buildings weakened by the earthquake, for fear that they will collapse.
More than 300,000 people have been displaced by the earthquake in Aleppo alone; 70,000 of them are sheltering in temporary shelters. Power outages, caused by the breakage of transmission lines or the closing of gas-fired power stations, have paralyzed the distribution of drinking water. A shortage of fuel also complicates travel, cooking with gas and heating homes.
A bandage on the wounds
More than 700 schools were damaged in the four provinces affected by the earthquake, according to Moutaz Adham. Hospitals are also operating at a slower pace, while the dead and injured continue to pour in. The earthquake has so far caused more than 1,600 deaths and 2,600 injuries in the Aleppo region, according to the Oxfam representative.
Slim hope in this flood of depression, the government of Bashar al-Assad opened two crossing points on Tuesday between Turkey and northern Syria, reported Agence France-Presse. Three land entry routes now allow humanitarian aid to make their way to the devastated areas.
Failing to find survivors in the rubble, rescuers will probably be able to temporarily relieve people deprived of a roof or food. But the real reconstruction efforts – drinking water or electricity distribution networks, for example – will always be delayed, for lack of lasting peace and international will, deplores Moutaz Adham. Rich countries are reluctant to fund the reconstruction of a country ruled by a man who has committed war crimes.