Over 21,000 victims of the earthquake between Turkey and Syria: Assad in Aleppo

By Cristiano Antonino On Feb 10, 2023

The victims number at least 18,000 in Turkey and more than 3,300 in Syria: people continue to dig through the rubble, but with less and less hope of finding people alive

The toll of the double earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria has exceeded 21,000 dead

The highest death toll is in Turkey where, according to official estimates, at least 18,342 people lost their lives.

This surpassed the death toll of the 1999 Istanbul earthquake (where 18,000 died).

In the early hours of the morning, rescuers managed to rescue a family of six who had been stuck for 101 hours in the rubble of their flat in Alexandretta, one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake.

But as the hours pass, the high number of collapsed buildings, blocked roads and temperatures around freezing quickly diminish hopes of rescuing survivors in both countries, as rescuers continue to declare.

EARTHQUAKE, 18,000 DEAD IN TURKEY, NEARLY 3,400 DEAD IN SYRIA

As for Syria, Damascus estimates that 3,377 people have died.

Five days after the disaster, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad visited survivors hospitalised in the University Hospital of Aleppo, accompanied by his wife Asma.

The national news agency Sana reported, adding that the first convoy of humanitarian aid from Jordan arrived at the Nassib Jaber crossing, south of the capital, while planes from Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates carrying over 90 tonnes of food, medicine and other aid landed at Damascus and Aleppo airports.

However, it is unclear whether this aid is also reaching the earthquake-affected areas in the north-west, among the most devastated by 12 years of war.

These are in fact the rebel-held areas where, according to the UN, 90% of the population lives on humanitarian aid.

Residents have been complaining for days about the lack of aid from the international community.

Yesterday, the first UN convoys entered the northern Bab Al-Hawa crossing on the border with Turkey, but as has been clarified, this was aid that had already been planned and not adapted to the emergency.

Yesterday, the EU announced the activation of the European Civil Protection Mechanism also for Syria, reporting that the first aid of necessary goods had been mobilised from Italy and Romania and that the World Food Programme (Wfp) had requested support.

This ‘will enable us to channel further aid’, according to a European Commission note.

The Wfp has also made it known that it is running out of aid supplies and has therefore called for new crossings to be opened to allow convoys to transit.

Calls to suspend international sanctions on the country are also growing.

Yesterday, the US State Department suspended part of it, allowing for 108 days of the financial transactions needed to help the earthquake victims.