The human toll of the powerful earthquake which stood on Sunday February 12 at more than 28,000 dead in Turkey and Syria goes “double or more”alerted the head of the UN humanitarian agency, Martin Griffiths.
Mr Griffiths visited Turkey on Saturday in the town of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on February 6 which killed 24,617 in the country and 3,574 in Syria, for a total of 28 191 people killed. “I think it is difficult to estimate (the balance sheet) precisely because we have to go under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double, or more »he told Sky News. “We haven’t really started counting the number of dead yet”he added.
The United Nations has warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals in Turkey and Syria. Up to 5.3 million are currently thought to be homeless in Syria alone. Nearly 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, WHO said on Saturday, appealing for donations of $42.8 million to fund immediate health needs.
“Soon the people in charge of search and rescue will give way to the humanitarian agencies whose job it is to take care of the extraordinary number of people affected over the next few months”Mr. Griffiths also said on Saturday, in a video posted on his Twitter account.
“Is the world there? »
“You are a miracle” : In a video shared by the Turkish Anadolu agency on Twitter, a 13-year-old girl is pulled from the rubble in Gaziantep, Turkey, well after the 72-hour period considered crucial. In Hatay province, a seven-month-old boy, Hamza, was also found alive, curled up under a slab where he spent more than 140 hours, the IHA news agency reported overnight. A two-year-old girl, Asya, was rescued in the same area.
Operating in freezing cold, rescuers also pulled a 70-year-old woman alive from the rubble in Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, amid cheers and screams, according to video broadcast by public broadcaster TRT Haber. “Is the world there? »she asked, coming back to the day.
Turkish news agency Anadolu also reported on the rescue of a 35-year-old mother and her six-year-old daughter from a destroyed building in Adiyaman province.
Worrying security situation for rescuers
But on Saturday morning, the Austrian army announced the suspension of its rescue operations in Turkey, citing “the security situation”. A similar decision was taken in Germany by the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), as well as the NGO ISAR Germany, which specializes in assisting victims of natural disasters, according to a spokesperson for the NGO. .
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“There have been attacks between groups”, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) a spokesman in Vienna, without further details. On the Austrian side, the eighty-two soldiers of the special relief unit Afdru (Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit) took shelter in a base camp in the province of Hatay “with other international organizations, pending instructions”, he added. They arrived on Tuesday with 45 tonnes of equipment and were able to extricate nine people from the rubble, according to a statement released on Friday.
Their return to Austria is currently still scheduled for Thursday but “the situation is being examined”, said the spokesperson. On the German side, ISAR Germany and THW “interrupt their rescue operations in Turkey”a spokesperson told AFP.
Forty looters arrested
“In recent hours, the security situation in Hatay province has apparently changed. There are increasing reports of clashes between different factions, shots were also reportedly fired”, he points out. German teams “remain therefore for the time being in the common base camp” And “will resume their activities” as soon as the Turkish Civil Protection “will consider the situation to be sufficiently secure”.
At least 48 people have been arrested for looting in eight earthquake-stricken provinces, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported on Saturday. Forty-two of these suspects were arrested in the province of Hatay alone in possession of large sums of money, mobile phones, computers, weapons, as well as jewelry and bank cards.
According to a decree published on Saturday in the Turkish official newspaper, prosecutors can now detain people accused of looting for seven days instead of four, as part of the state of emergency declared Wednesday by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to deal with to disaster.
Interpellations in the building sector
A dozen people in the construction industry have been arrested in Turkey after the collapse of thousands of buildings, which betrays their poor construction. Among them are an entrepreneur from the province of Gaziantep and eleven people from the province of Sanliurfa, according to the Turkish agency DHA. More arrests are expected, with Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay announcing late Saturday that 113 arrest warrants had been issued.
Nearly 26 million people could have been affected by the earthquake, 15 million in Turkey and 11 million in Syria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday in an appeal for funds. WHO is calling for emergency financial assistance of $42.8 million to meet immediate health needs.