About 865,000 people are currently living in tents in southern Turkey, where earthquakes on February 6 destroyed 139,000 buildings and killed at least 42,130 people, Turkish authorities announced on Tuesday.
According to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, quoted by the EFE bureau, in addition to the 865,000 people currently living in tents, 23,500 have been given prefabricated houses and 376,000 people have been housed in institutions run by the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Sports.
The head of state said the buildings destroyed by the quake were equivalent to nearly half a million homes and offices.
Meanwhile, the two new earthquakes recorded on Saturday, with their epicenter in the Mediterranean province of Hatay, the worst hit by the earthquake on the 6th, point to the need for more tents to prevent people from seeking shelter in uncollapsed houses. warned local authorities.
These last two earthquakes killed at least six people and seriously injured 18, with buildings damaged in the first quake, which now finally collapsed.
Noting that 2.5 million people in the region are fed daily by the Red Cross, Erdogan promised to rebuild not only the centers of the affected cities, but also 70,000 homes in rural communities within a year.
Hatay, with 14,000 village houses in need of reconstruction, and Kahramanmaras, with 12,000, are the provinces hardest hit by the earthquakes.
Source: DN
