Rebel-held areas in Syria get first batch of UN quake aid; death toll tops 22,000

BAB AL-HAWA, SYRIA - Aid from the United Nations (UN) has reached Syrian rebel-held zones devastated by the

Turkey-Syria earthquake,

as the death toll from the disaster topped 22,000.

World Health Organisation (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that he was heading to Syria. “On my way to Syria, where WHO is supporting essential healthcare in the areas affected by the recent earthquake,” he tweeted.

Hopes of finding more survivors continue to fade.

A bitter cold has hampered the search for survivors trapped in thousands of flattened buildings and threatens the lives of many quake victims who are without shelter and drinking water.

Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital carpark in Turkey’s southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy.

“We found my aunt but not my uncle,” said Ms Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family.

Chances of finding survivors have dimmed

now that the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed.

The magnitude-7.8 quake struck on early Monday as people slept, in a region where many had already suffered loss and displacement due to Syria’s civil war.

But in a potentially life-saving development, an aid convoy reached rebel-held north-western Syria earlier in the day, the first since the quake, said an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.

The crossing is the only way UN assistance can reach civilians without going through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border humanitarian aid points between Turkey and Syria to deliver aid.

Four million people living in rebel-held areas of north-west Syria have had to rely on the Bab al-Hawa crossing as part of a cross-border aid operation authorised by the Security Council nearly a decade ago.

“This is the moment of unity, it’s not a moment to politicise or to divide, but it is obvious that we need massive support,” Mr Guterres said.

Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus 5deg C early on Thursday.

But thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents – too scared of or banned from returning to their homes.

Parents walked the streets of the city – close to the epicentre of Monday’s earthquake – carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.

Gyms, mosques, schools and some stores have opened at night. But beds are still at a premium and thousands spend the nights in cars with engines running to provide heat.

“I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble,” said Ms Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers work into the night.

International rescuers said the intense cold has forced them to weigh whether to use their limited fuel supplies to keep warm or carry out their work.

“Not a single person has failed to mention this, the cold,” said Mr Athanassios Balafas, a Greek fire official. “Obviously we chose to keep operating.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged on Wednesday that

there were “shortcomings” in the government’s handling

of the disaster.

Monday’s quake was the largest Turkey has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people died in the eastern Erzincan province.

Close to 19,000 people had died in Turkey and 3,377 in Syria from Monday’s tremor, bringing the confirmed total to more than 22,000. Experts fear the number will continue to rise sharply.

Anger has mounted over the government’s handling of the disaster.

“People who didn’t die from the earthquake were left to die in the cold,” said Mr Hakan Tanriverdi in Adiyaman province, one of the areas hardest hit.

Despite the difficulties, thousands of local and foreign searchers have not given up the hunt for more survivors.

Two dozen children and some of their parents from northern Cyprus – 39 Turkish Cypriots in all – were on a school trip to join a volleyball tournament when the quake hit their hotel in south-east Turkey’s Adiyaman.

Their home region’s government has declared a national mobilisation, hiring a private plane so that they could join the search-and-rescue effort for the children.

Mr Ilhami Bilgen, whose brother Hasan was on the volleyball team, looked at the frightening pile of concrete slabs and heavy bricks that used to be the hotel. “There’s a hollow over there. The children may have crawled into it. We still haven’t given up hope,” he said.

Dozens of nations,

including China and the United States, have pledged to help.

The World Bank said it would give US$1.78 billion (S$2.4 billion) in aid to Turkey to help relief and recovery efforts.

Immediate assistance of US$780 million will be offered from two existing projects in Turkey, said the bank, while another US$1 billion in operations is being prepared to support people affected amid recovery and reconstruction.

In addition to a staggering human toll, the quake’s economic cost appears likely to exceed US$2 billion and could reach US$4 billion or more, Fitch Ratings said. AFP