BAB AL-HAWA BORDER CROSSING, Syria: International aid was trickling into parts of Türkiye and Syria on Saturday (Feb 11) where rescuers toiled to pull children from rubble in areas devastated by a massive earthquake that has killed over 24,000 people.
A winter freeze in the affected areas has hurt rescue efforts and compounded the suffering of millions of people, many in desperate need of aid.
At least 870,000 people urgently needed food in the two countries after the quake, which has left up to 5.3 million people homeless in Syria alone, the United Nations (UN) warned.
Aftershocks following Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor have added to the death toll and further upended the lives of survivors.
“When I see the destroyed buildings, the bodies, it’s not that I can’t see where I will be in two or three years – I can’t imagine where I’ll be tomorrow,” said Fidan Turan, a pensioner in Türkiye’s southern city of Antakya, her eyes filling with tears.
“We’ve lost 60 of our extended family members,” she said. “Sixty! What can I say? It’s God’s will.”
The UN World Food Programme appealed for US$77 million to provide food rations to at least 590,000 newly displaced people in Türkiye and 284,000 in Syria.
Of those, 545,000 were internally displaced people and 45,000 were refugees, it said.
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