Turkey and Syria earthquake victims' number exceed 50,000

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen
28 Feb 2023 21:51

WHO and Russian FM are assisting Turkey and Syria respectively with the aftermath of the earthquake

People walk past collapsed buildings following a devastating earthquake in the town of Jinderis, Aleppo province, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023 (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Today, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Minister Sergey Lavrov and the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, discussed in Moscow missions to mobilize international assistance to overcome the repercussions of the devastating earthquake in Syria.

Additionally, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced today that the organization will support Ankara in its response to the consequences of the devastating earthquakes.

The death toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey has amounted to more than 50,000 deaths: 5,951 in Syria and 44,374 in Turkey.

The earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria at dawn on Monday, February 6, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale with the earthquake's aftershocks reaching other countries in the region.

In both countries, the earthquake caused severe damage to thousands of buildings, including schools, healthcare facilities, and other public infrastructure.

The World Health Organization estimated that the number of people affected by the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria is about 23 million.

The earthquake caused large-scale destruction in northern Syria in the governorates of Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Latakia, and Tartous, further exacerbating the tragedies of a nation that has been suffering, for almost 12 years, because of war and subsequent sanctions.

The devastating earthquake was followed by Arab humanitarian support for Syria. Prominent Arab officials, including Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, met President Bashar al-Assad yesterday, in an unprecedented meeting since the outbreak of the war on Syria in 2011.

The World Bank estimated the value of direct material damage resulting from the major earthquake in Turkey to be around $34.2 billion but indicated that the total costs of reconstruction and recovery facing the country may be twice that estimate.

A local study in Syria estimated the damage caused by the devastating earthquake exceeded $5 billion with Idlib alone sustaining damage worth $2 billion of costs.