WHO seeks $113m for earthquake response in Turkey, Syria
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The death toll from the Feb 6 earthquake in Turkey now stands at more than 45,000.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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GENEVA - The World Health Organisation (WHO) appealed on Friday for US$84.5 million (S$113 million) to respond to health needs after the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria.
The natural disaster on Feb 6 has killed more than 45,000 people,
“The flash appeal outlines the health situation in the two countries following this humanitarian disaster, the main threats to health, the WHO response since the earthquakes hit and priorities for addressing the health impacts in both countries,” the United Nations agency said in a statement.
Aid organisations say the survivors will need help for months to come with so much crucial infrastructure destroyed.
The UN on Thursday appealed for more than US$1 billion in funds for the Turkish relief operation, and has launched a US$400 million appeal for Syrians.
The death toll in Turkey now stands at 39,672, making it the worst disaster in modern Turkish history.
But this number is expected to shoot up, given roughly 264,000 apartments were lost in the quake and many people are still unaccounted for.
In neighbouring Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, the authorities have reported more than 5,800 deaths. The toll has not changed for days.
The bulk of Syria’s fatalities have been in the north-west.
It is an area controlled by insurgents who are at war with President Bashar al-Assad – a conflict that has complicated efforts to aid people affected by the earthquake.
Mosques around the world performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the enormity of the disaster.
While many international rescue teams have left the vast quake zone, survivors are still emerging from under a multitude of flattened homes,
Turkish rescuers on Saturday pulled three people, including a child, alive from the rubble, but one later died, local media reported. REUTERS
