Four days after the earthquake, the balance sheets continue to increase. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which struck at dawn on Monday, destroyed entire towns in southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria. According to the latest official reports published on Friday February 10, at least 22,368 dead, including 18,991 in Turkey and 3,377 in Syria.
Four French among the victims
Four French nationals are among the victims, the French foreign ministry announced on Friday. The Quai d’Orsay added that it was following “with the greatest attention to the situation of the French present in the area at the time of the earthquakes, in conjunction with the Turkish authorities”.
To ensure their protection, the crisis and support center of the ministry and the French embassy in Ankara have opened crisis cells.
“Given the difficult situation in this area, we urge French people who have considered going there to postpone any travel plans”also asked the ministry.
Humanitarian aid pours into Turkey
“The destruction affected so many buildings (…) that unfortunately, we were not able to carry out our interventions as quickly as hoped”recognized for the first time on Friday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visiting the city of Adiyaman (south), which was badly affected by the disaster.
Humanitarian aid is flowing into Turkey – Germany notably announced on Friday the sending of 90 tonnes of material by plane – but access to Syria at war, whose regime is under international sanctions, is much more complicated.
Almost all of the humanitarian aid destined for the rebel areas is sent from Turkey through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing point, the only one currently guaranteed by the UN. Turkish diplomacy says it is working to open two other crossing points “with regions under government control” damask, “for humanitarian reasons”.
A woman was saved Friday in Kirikhan (Turkey) by a team of German rescuers, after more than a hundred hours under the rubble of a devastated house, according to an NGO. “The rescue team took more than fifty hours to work their way through the rubble to reach this woman”described on Twitter the German NGO ISAR Germany. The 40-year-old woman, named Zeynep, was ” immediately “ under the care of doctors, his condition is ” steady “according to the NGO.
‼️ ???? RETTUNG NACH ÜBER 100 STUNDEN – Unser Team hat am Morgen eine Frau aus den Trümmern eines Hauses im türkisc… https://t.co/mNEnmwTT89
In Syria, Bashar Al-Assad and his wife at the bedside of the victims of Aleppo
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad visited Friday the bedside of earthquake victims in Aleppo (north), for the first time since the earthquake which killed more than 3,300 people in his country, announced the presidency.
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Syrian state media published images of the head of state, accompanied by his wife, Asma, at the bedside of victims at Aleppo University Hospital, in his first visit to disaster-stricken areas since the earthquake which also hit hard touched Turkey.
The president also toured disaster-stricken neighborhoods in Aleppo, the country’s second largest city, according to images from the presidency. The earthquake left 415 dead and 1,050 injured in the province of the same name, according to a provisional report from the Ministry of Health.
During his public appearances since the earthquake, the Syrian president has been seen at a government meeting and receiving an official Lebanese delegation, but has not yet been on the ground. Mr. Assad has received calls and help from several countries, especially Arab countries, hoping to break the diplomatic isolation he has suffered since the start of the war in Syria in 2011.