Even more than a week after the severe earthquake in southern Turkey, the situation in northwestern Syria is unclear.
The chances of survival for those buried are now practically zero, and now there is a risk of epidemics due to the miserable hygienic conditions in many places.
Large cities such as Aleppo and the coastal city of Latakia were hit by the tremors, but smaller, less well-known places on the Syrian border with Turkey also felt their force.
It is difficult for international aid organizations and journalists to enter the region or report from there.
The first high-resolution satellite images are now showing the effects of the earthquake.
To make matters worse, the country has been at war for about twelve years.
Dictator Bashar al-Assad has blocked access for aid supplies to rebel-held areas in the northwest.
It was only a week after the tremors that Assad approved the opening of additional Turkish-Syrian border crossings for humanitarian aid, progress that has been slow so far.
For a long time, the only open border crossing into the rebel area, Bab al-Hawa, could not be used at times due to the destroyed roads.
According to the Reuters news agency, a second crossing was opened on Tuesday for a period of three months, and a third is to follow.
Those who suffer are primarily those who already had little beforehand.
According to the EU Commission, more than four million people in north-west Syria are dependent on humanitarian aid.
Food, medicines and other essential goods are routed through Bab al-Hawa and end up in Atma, for example.
According to estimates, 800,000 people who fled from the war live in a camp there, under the most difficult conditions.
For them, the situation is likely to get even worse.
More than a week after the earthquake disaster, the number of confirmed deaths in Turkey and Syria was more than 41,000 by Wednesday morning.
Thousands are still missing, but hope is fading.
Meanwhile, many survivors lack a roof over their heads – with sometimes freezing temperatures.
According to the United Nations, around nine million people have been affected by the earthquake in Syria alone.
