The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 has exceeded 41,000, official and medical sources announced on Thursday February 16. The total now stands at 41,732 people who lost their lives: 38,044 in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria. Hopes of finding survivors dwindle as the hours pass.
Turkish rescuers pulled a 17-year-old girl and a woman in her twenties out of the rubble on Thursday, nearly 11 days after the quake devastated the border area between the two countries. Turkey has suspended rescue operations in some areas and the government of Syria, a 12-year war-torn country, has done the same in areas it controls. In Turkey, the toll of the earthquake makes it the deadliest natural disaster in the country's post-Ottoman history.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday launched an appeal for international aid to raise a billion dollars to help the two devastated countries. "The funding - which covers a three-month period - will assist 5.2 million people and allow aid organizations to step up their crucial support to government-led efforts" in "earthquake-hit Turkey." most devastating land in the country in a century," Antonio Guterres wrote in a statement.
He "urged the international community to do more and fully fund this vital effort to respond to one of the greatest natural disasters of our time." "Turkey is home to the largest number of refugees in the world and has shown immense generosity to its neighbor Syria for years," the UN chief insisted. "Now is the time for the world to support the people of Turkey, just as they have done with others in search of help," added Antonio Guterres, adding that "the needs were enormous, (that) the people were suffering and (that) there was no time to lose".
On the other hand, ArcelorMittal, the world's second largest steel group - describing a "heartbreaking" situation - announced a donation of 5 million dollars to help victims in Turkey and Syria, via the humanitarian organizations Doctors Without Borders and Disasters Emergency Committee. The US State Department announced on Wednesday that US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken would travel to Turkey on Sunday to see the ongoing humanitarian effort there. He must first join the air base of Incirlik, in the south-east of the country, from where part of the humanitarian aid leaves for the disaster areas, then in Ankara where he has scheduled talks with the Turkish authorities. Sunday and Monday.
