A week and a half after the earthquake catastrophe that killed tens of thousands, many more tremors shook the Turkish-Syrian border region. According to the Turkish Civil Protection on Wednesday, more than 3,800 aftershocks have already been registered – 38 with a magnitude of more than 5. The authority warned of further “intense aftershocks”.
Meanwhile, the need for relief supplies in Syria is huge. “Despite the arrival of 90 relief vans, the amount of humanitarian funds in warehouses in Syria is falling to critically low levels,” Samantha Power, director of the United States Agency for Development and Emergency Assistance (USAID), wrote on Twitter.
Since the first tremors on Monday a week ago, 95 trucks have been bringing relief supplies to rebel-controlled northwestern Syria. In addition, UN goods were distributed that were already stored in the country before the disaster, including around 2,000 tents and blankets. In the country there are tablets for water treatment for up to 500,000 people.
According to the British think tank Chatham, no aid has yet arrived for the victims of the earthquake in the northwest from the areas of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
In Turkey, too, there is a dispute over emergency aid for the earthquake victims: the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP accused the Turkish Civil Protection (Afad) of having brought stoves, wood and coal to its own depots. Afad reports to the Interior Ministry and initially did not respond to the allegations.
Blankets and jackets from Bangladesh
Rohingya refugees from overcrowded camps in Bangladesh also sent aid in the form of blankets and jackets, Rohingya leader Sahat Zia Hero said. The people themselves are dependent on international aid. “We can feel the pain of being homeless.” Turkey itself helped a lot when members of the Muslim minority fled the country from repression and persecution in their predominantly Buddhist homeland of Myanmar in 2017.
After the disaster, which has now confirmed the deaths of 40,000, hopes of finding survivors continue to dwindle. According to their own statements, a Dutch rescue team rescued three men and a child from the rubble in the Turkish city of Antakya after nine days. A father and his son were found on Wednesday night, and the other two men were rescued on Tuesday evening. Rescue dogs would have scented their tracks.
Meanwhile, two brothers who were reportedly rescued Tuesday morning told Turkish media that they survived the long time with the help of protein powder and their own urine.
Early Monday morning a week ago, a first earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 shook southeast Turkey at 2.17 a.m. (CET), followed hours later by a second severe earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6.
Search for personal belongings
Meanwhile, the survivors also turn to the task of salvaging a few more souvenirs from the rubble. In the Syrian province of Latakia, dozens searched for personal belongings under the rubble. Like Sainab Ali trying to find photo albums. “I have hundreds of photos of my children, of me as a child, keepsakes from school and university, my wedding photos,” she said through tears. “After this earthquake we lost our past.”
More than 35,000 people lost their lives in Turkey alone, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 5,900 deaths were recently reported from Syria. Thousands in the border region are still missing.
For the first time since the beginning of the civil war, the Jordanian foreign minister visited Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad to deliver a message of condolence from King Abdullah II.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, meanwhile, a false report about an imminent earthquake on Wednesday night drove several thousand people outdoors. The warning spread via social media, especially in the Romanian communities in various cities, the police said. Emergency services struggled to calm people down.
