Two days after the earthquakes, the valuations, which are still provisional, continue to grow. This Wednesday, official reports already show more than 9,500 deaths, including 6,957 in Turkey and 2,547 in Syria, after the violent earthquakes that struck the area on Monday morning. According to the WHO, the final balance of the tragedy could be around 20,000 dead.
Balances likely to increase
In both countries, rescuers are still working in the freezing cold to try to find survivors. Bad weather complicates the rescue task and the Turkish Interior Minister warned on Tuesday that the next 48 hours would be “crucial”.
International aid began arriving in Turkey on Tuesday, where national mourning was declared for seven days. On BFMTV, Lieutenant Colonel Cyrille, a Civil Security member who was sent to Turkey, details how relief workers are trying to find survivors.
“Our goal is to find pockets of survival, and of course to find survivors as quickly as possible,” he says, as his team clears the site of an eight-story building in the city of Osmaniye. . As of Wednesday morning, 19 people are still buried there.
In Syria, the number of casualties is expected to “rise sharply as hundreds of people remain trapped under rubble,” according to the White Helmets (civil protection volunteers) in rebel areas.
In total, the WHO estimates that 23 million people are affected by this 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale and its aftershocks. This is already the worst death toll Turkey has known since 1999, when 17,000 people died, including 1,000 in Istanbul.
International aid begins
The first teams of foreign rescuers arrived on Tuesday. According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who declared a state of emergency for three months in the ten provinces affected by the earthquake, 45 countries offered their help.
The European Union has mobilized 1,185 rescuers and 79 search dogs for Turkey from 19 Member States, including France, Germany and Greece. For Syria, the EU is in contact with its humanitarian partners on the ground and finances aid operations.
US President Joe Biden has promised Recep Tayyip Erdogan “all the help he needs, whatever it is.” Two rescue teams were due to arrive in Turkey on Wednesday morning. Even Ukraine, despite the Russian invasion, announced the dispatch of 87 rescuers to Turkey.
The United Arab Emirates has pledged $100 million in aid and Saudi Arabia, which has had no ties to the Damascus regime since 2012, has announced an airlift to help affected populations in both countries.
Source: BFM TV
