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Earthquake in Turkey: the UN warns that the death toll could exceed 60 thousand people

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As the death toll from the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria nears 29,000, UN humanitarian services chief Martin Griffiths has sounded a loud alarm and predicted that the final number of victims “will double or even more”.

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The UN representative made the remarks in an interview with Sky News on Saturday as he visited Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, the epicenter of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria.

“I think it’s difficult to accurately estimate (the deceased) since then you must go under the ruins, but I’m sure they will double or even more,” Griffiths said.

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Martin Griffiths, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator.  Reuters photo.

Martin Griffiths, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator. Reuters photo.

We haven’t started counting the death toll yet.”, said the expert recalling that entire cities have been reduced to rubble. “It is the most disastrous earthquake of the last hundred years,” he summarized.

In Turkish territory, the authorities have so far recorded 24,617 dead and more than 80,000 injured, making the earthquakes recorded this week the most devastating since 1939.

“We have failed Syria”

In the midst of the disaster, Griffiths applauded the efforts of the international community, with dozens of countries offering aid to Turkey, and called on the government in Damascus to take further steps to support opposition areas after authorizing the arrival of international humanitarian aid.

In Syria, plunged into a civil war for 12 years, the earthquake hit government areas but also others in opposition hands. There the death toll this Sunday is 3,575 and that of the wounded is around 5,300, registered mostly in the opposition areas in the north-west of the Arab country, where yesterday the group of White Helmets rescuers concluded their search for survivors.

“Until now we have failed the people in northwestern Syria. They feel rightly abandoned, looking for international aid that hasn’t arrived,” Griffiths said on his Twitter account, indicating he was on the Turkish-Syrian divide, without specifying which side.

Members of a rescue team carry Cudie, a 12-year-old Syrian earthquake survivor who was trapped under rubble for 147 hours.  Photo EFE.

Members of a rescue team carry Cudie, a 12-year-old Syrian earthquake survivor who was trapped under rubble for 147 hours. Photo EFE.

Since last Monday’s earthquake, the group of rescuers The White Helmets denounce that they have not received aid from the United Nations in the opposition areas of north-western Syria, difficult to access since it can only be reached through a single border crossing, the Bab el Hawa, which connects Turkey with the Syrian province of Idlib.

The leader of the relief group, Raed Saleh, also said on Friday that “the United Nations bureaucracy participated in the massacre of the Syrian people”. In the face of the barrage of criticism against the United Nations, Griffiths indicated on Twitter that it is “your duty and obligation to correct this failure as quickly as possible”.

The first convoy of humanitarian aid from the United Nations arrived last Thursday in northwestern Syria, almost four days after the earthquakes that devastated this region of the Arab country, but The expedition did not include any food or machinery for the salvage work.

In fact, only yesterday, Saturday, the first convoy of the organization arrived with specific supplies for the populations affected by the earthquake in the rebel areas and the third of the organization that has entered Bab al Hawa since the first earthquake recorded at dawn on Monday

According to data from this organization, 2,167 people died and 2,950 were injured in the rebel areas of the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, to which were added another 1,408 dead and 2,341 injured in the areas in the hands of the government of Bashar al Asad.

Source: Clarin

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