TURKEY-SYRIA EARTHQUAKE

An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck the Turkey-Syria region this month, setting off panic and confusion, and damaging lots of infrastructure in Turkey’s Antakya city, two weeks after the country’s worst-ever earthquake left 47,000 people dead. Two Reuters witnesses reported a strong quake and further damage to buildings in central Antakya, where it was centered. It was also felt in Egypt and Lebanon, Reuters reporters said.

Rescuers were digging through the rubble of levelled buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras and neighbouring Gaziantep. Crumbled buildings were also reported in Adiyaman, Malatya and Diyarbakir.

“Large damage and local devastation has to be expected. Rescue forces are in the area right now and we will see the number rising over the next days,” Martin Mai, a professor of geophysics at King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia, told Al Jazeera.

“In the past, these earthquakes in Turkey have led to about 10,000 to 13,000 fatalities, owing to building style construction and the sheer size of this event will have profound economic impact as well.”

The famous Yeni Mosque, which dates to the thirteenth century, partially collapsed in the province of Maltaya, where a 14-story building with 28 apartments also collapsed.

A resident of the badly hit

Turkish city of Antakya called the government’s response “shocking”, saying there were hardly any professional rescue teams or equipment from the government in the first two and half days. He says many family members that were able to get out of buildings during the earthquake stayed behind waiting for emergency response teams to arrive and help rescue family members.

Overall, over 54,000 people have died. Some of these deaths were also famous people, such as exNewcastle defender Christian Atsu. Many people have donated money to the government to help the situation. A US resident, from Pakistan, has anonymously donated $30m to victims of the earthquake that has killed thousands of people in Turkey and Syria, and devastated the countries’ infrastructure.

Snow and bitter winter weather have placed children at great risk of hypothermia, as they struggle to survive in sub-zero temperatures. Many survivors have had to sleep in cars, outside, or in makeshift shelters. Doctors have warned that children are also at risk of exposure to waterborne diseases, like cholera or Hepatitis A, due to the damage to shelters and water infrastructure.

These children are now even more vulnerable to family separation, exploitation, and abuse. As buildings are deemed unsafe, they also are unable to return to school.

In northern Syria, in particular, the threats to children from abuse were already extreme. The soaring poverty, and within a warzone, now devastated by earthquakes, has created an unimaginable number of challenges, and suffering for children, says Johan, director of the Syria crisis response in Amman, Jordan. This earthquake has created the perfect environment for a health crisis fueled by reduced healthcare capacity and disease outbreaks.

Humanitarian needs were already extremely severe in northwest Syria, and this catastrophic earthquake has added trauma to ongoing crisis there, he said. Health facilities were already badly equipped and unable to cope with need, but now many have been destroyed. Families are trying to survive with no homes and no access to food, in sub-zero temperatures whilst also attempting to deal with the physical and mental impact of this earthquake.”

Lastly, it will take years to fully reconstruct the infrastructure that has been damaged and funding is urgently needed to help people affected by the earthquakes to survive this crisis and begin their recovery. The IRC has more than 1,000 staff inside Syria, working tirelessly to provide life-saving support.