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Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: Von der Leyen promises Erdoğan further help

2023-02-12T21:58:31.693Z


The EU Commission President wants to send tents and blankets to Turkey, and the WHO has convoys ready for the rebel areas in north-west Syria. The death toll climbs to more than 35,000.


Enlarge image

Searching for people buried in the rubble of a block of flats: helpers in Kahramanmaras in Turkey

Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa

A week after the earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria, the death toll continues to rise.

On Sunday, the threshold of 35,000 confirmed victims was exceeded.

But the number of victims in Syria is significantly higher than previously reported.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 4,500 people have died in rebel-held areas in the north-west and around 1,400 in government-controlled regions, said Richard Brennan, Emergency Relief Coordinator for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region.

The UN fears even higher numbers.

There is little hope of finding survivors under the rubble.

Nevertheless, people were saved alive over the weekend again and again, about a seven-month-old baby.

Germany now wants to give those affected the opportunity to temporarily stay with relatives via an unbureaucratic visa procedure.

EU supplies tents, blankets and heaters

In view of the devastating consequences of the earthquake, the EU is mobilizing additional aid in Turkey.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone that more tents, blankets and heaters would be supplied.

The Commission is also mobilizing the private sector to provide the necessary support as quickly as possible, a spokeswoman in Brussels said.

According to information, Turkey has already been offered 38 rescue teams with 1,651 helpers and 106 search dogs via the so-called EU civil protection procedure.

In addition, twelve EU countries have already provided 50,000 winter-proof family tents, 100,000 blankets and 50,000 heaters.

In addition, there are 500 emergency shelters, 8,000 beds and 2,000 tents mobilized by the Commission.

Von der Leyen wrote via the short message service Twitter that she had called Erdogan to discuss further support.

She also sent her heartfelt condolences to the people of Turkey for the catastrophic loss of life and destruction.

WHO awaits extradition authorization

The WHO also has convoys with earthquake aid ready for the rebel areas in north-west Syria, but is still waiting for the delivery permit.

The government in Damascus has given full approval to bring convoys from government-controlled areas to rebel-held areas, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We are ready, waiting to hear from the other side," said Tedros.

The area around Idlib is under the control of militias.

The humanitarian aid organization White Helmets, which is active in north-west Syria, complained on Friday that practically no UN earthquake aid had arrived in the region by then.

According to Tedros, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has given him the prospect of opening further border crossings between the north-west and Turkey because of the emergency situation.

Three aid organizations end their mission

Meanwhile, three German aid organizations want to end their rescue mission in the Turkish earthquake region on Monday.

The joint team from Isar Germany and the rescue dog organization BRH will return to Germany on Monday, the two NGOs said.

“Behind our team is the most extensive foreign assignment in the history of the organizations,” explained BRH President Jürgen Schart.

The managing director of ISAR Germany, Michael Lesmeister, praised the emergency services for their “great work”.

The helpers "sometimes worked to the brink of exhaustion to save people".

The two aid organizations said they were deployed with 42 emergency services and seven dogs in Kirikhan in the Turkish province of Hatay.

Since last Monday, they have managed to save four people alive from the rubble.

Among them was a 40-year-old woman who was rescued after more than a hundred hours.

However, she later succumbed to her injuries.

jpa/dpa/AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-02-12

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