Syria asked the European Union (EU) this Wednesday for assistance with relief efforts, as Turkey had already done after the earthquakes that devastated both countries, the European Commission revealed.
European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, confirmed Damascus’s request on Wednesday and appealed for member states’ solidarity with Syria.
“This morning we received a request for help from the Syrian government through the [europeu] of civil protection”Lenarcic announced at a press conference presenting recommendations from the community executive to make the European Union more resilient to natural disasters and large-scale emergencies.
The request, he stressed, has been forwarded to the 27, and the Commission awaits their response by sending the requested aid, stressing to the Commissioner that Brussels will monitor the aid to ensure it “is not diverted ” and it reaches who needs it. .
The ‘white helmets’, saviors of rebel zones in Syria, also this Wednesday asked the international community to send search and rescue teams to assist them in operations to find survivors under the rubble after Monday’s deadly earthquakes.
“We ask the international community to take responsibility for civilian casualties. We need international rescue teams in our regions,” Mohammad al-Hammad, spokesman for the ‘white helmets’, told France-Presse news agency (AFP). “It’s a real race against time. People are dying under the rubble every second”he added.
As time passes, “the chances of rescuing people are decreasing,” said the spokesman, reached by phone via AFP in Turkey. “We need heavy equipment and replacement parts for our equipment.”
The ‘white helmets’, based on years of experience gained during the war in Syria, are leading post-earthquake relief operations in the north of the country, controlled by the rebels. “According to our information, hundreds of families are still missing or trapped under the rubble”added al-Hammad, lamenting that the “white helmets” do not have “search dogs” to determine which collapsed buildings may still contain living victims.
The EU has already mobilized 25 search and rescue teams, involving nearly 1,200 rescuers from 21 countries, including Portugal, to assist Turkish authorities in rescue operations continuing after Monday’s earthquake. On Tuesday evening, the British Foreign Office announced that an additional £ 800,000 (about 900,300 euros) is available for the ‘white helmets’.
At least 8,574 fatalities have been recorded in Turkey and 2,662 bodies have been recovered from the rubble in Syria, more than half of them in the rebel areas in the north and northwest of the country, close to Turkey, where about four million people live. In these areas, aid is delivered from Turkey through a single transit point.
However, according to the United Nations, the road has been damaged by the 7.8 earthquake and its consequences, forcing relief operations to be temporarily suspended.
Source: DN
