Earthquake deaths in Turkey and Syria exceed 15,000; Turks demand action from the government and Erdogan acknowledges the difficulties
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom stressed that ‘time is running out for thousands of injured and missing among the ruins’
The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 was recorded in Turkey and so on SYRIA so far it has caused at least 12,000 deaths. In Turkey, the number of fatal victims has reached 12,391, according to the latest balance presented by the local authorities. The government declared seven days of mourning and a three-month state of emergency in the most affected provinces. In Syria, on the other hand, the death toll rose to 2,992. The information is from the Damascus government and Civil Defense teams in rebel-held areas. Thousands of rescuers work in freezing temperatures to find survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings on both sides of the border. This Wednesday, the 8th, despite the difficulties, the rescue teams saved the children who were in the ruins of a property in the Turkish province of Hatay, where the towns completely disappeared. However, the General Director of World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reinforced that “time is running out for thousands of injured and missing among the ruins”.
Even with ongoing work, thousands of Turks are demanding government action to intensify the rescue. One of them is Ali, who is located in the city of Kahramanmaras, at the epicenter of the earthquake. He hopes to find his brother and nephew alive, trapped under the rubble. “Where is the state? Where is?” he asks desperately. Criticism of the population is supported by Ugur Poyraz, secretary general of the opposition party Iyi. “The aid is definitely not being coordinated professionally,” he says. “Citizens and local teams are joining the rescue operations themselves to save people from the rubble,” he added. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Hatay province on Wednesday, admitted there were “shortcomings” in the earthquake response and said it was “impossible to be prepared for a disaster like this”. The unrest also includes the Syrian town of Jindire, in a rebel-held area, where “there are more people under the rubble than on it,” said Hassan, a resident of the area. “There are about 400, 500 people trapped under each building, with only 10 trying to get them out. And there are no machines,” he complained.
After the disaster, countries pledged aid to Turkey. They are among them China, US, Ukraine It United Arab Emirates. As Jovem Pan showedThe Brazilian government also announced Wednesday that it is sending a humanitarian mission to help search and rescue victims of the earthquake. The humanitarian mission will consist of 22 rescuers and doctors from the Fire Department of São Paulo, another 20 from the Civil Defense of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo and four dogs specialized in the search for survivors – one of the animals participated in the rescue of victims . of the disaster in the city of Brumadinhos, in Minas Gerais, which left almost 270 dead in 2019. The humanitarian mission ordered by the president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) also provides for the transportation of five tons of equipment to search for people and help victims. Syria, on the other hand, relies heavily on Russian aid.
