GENEVA: More than seven million children have been affected by the massive earthquake and a major aftershock that devastated Turkiye and Syria last week, the United Nations said on Tuesday, voicing fear that "many thousands" more had died.
"In Turkiye, the total number of children living in the 10 provinces hit by the two earthquakes was 4.6 million children. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected," James Elder, spokesman for the UN children's agency Unicef, told reporters in Geneva.
He spoke as rescue teams began winding down the search for survivors from the disastrous quake that has left more than 35,000 dead in the two countries.
"Unicef fears many thousands of children have been killed," Elder said, warning that "even without verified numbers, it is tragically clear that numbers will continue grow." He said he feared the final toll would be "mind-boggling."
Given the catastrophic, and ever-increasing, death toll, he said it was obvious that "many, many children will have lost parents in these devastating earthquakes." "It will be a terrifying figure," he warned.
Among the rubble, hundreds of thousands of homeless people face cold and hunger.
Families with children were "sleeping in the streets, malls, schools, mosques, bus stations and under bridges, staying with their children in open areas for fear of going home," he said.
"Tens of thousands of families are exposed to the elements at a time of year when temperatures are bitingly cold, and snow and freezing rain are common," he said, pointing to reports of rising numbers of children suffering from hypothermia and respiratory infections. - AFP
Quake Europe's worst natural disaster in 'a century'
COPENHAGEN: The World Health Organization said that last week's massive earthquake, the epicentre of which was in Turkiye, constituted the "worst natural disaster" in 100 years in its Europe region. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake, followed by a major aftershock, on February 6 has now killed more than 35,000 people in Turkiye and neighbouring Syria. "We are witnessing the worst natural disaster in the WHO European region for a century and we are still learning about its magnitude," Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a press conference. The WHO's European region comprises 53 countries, including Turkiye. Syria is a member of the WHO's neighbouring Eastern Mediterranean region. Kluge also said the health body had "initiated the largest deployment of emergency medical teams" in the 75-year history of the WHO European region. "Twenty-two emergency medical teams have arrived in Turkiye so far," Kluge noted, adding they would integrate into "Turkiye's ongoing health response". - AFP
First UN team since quake crosses into Syria
SARMADA, Syria: The first UN delegation to visit rebel-held northwestern Syria since last week's earthquake crossed over from Turkiye on Tuesday, a correspondent reported, as anger simmers at the world body's slow response. More than 35,000 people were killed when the quake devastated swathes of Syria and neighbouring Turkiye on February 6, at least 3,600 of them in Syria, according to government officials and emergency services in rebel areas. "A multi-agency mission has gone this morning from the Turkiye side across the border crossing... It's largely an assessment mission," the World Food Programme's Syria director, Kenn Crossley, said in Geneva. The delegation comprised deputy regional humanitarian coordinator David Carden and Sanjana Quazi, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Turkey. Activists and emergency teams in the northwest have decried the UN's slow response to the quake in rebel-held areas, contrasting it with the planeloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports. "I don't want to sit here and give excuses, but I wanted to share that we are all collectively in the same place," Quazi told reporters in the rebel-held town of Sarmada, close to the border. "I think we also know that it is not enough," she said, adding that the UN was doing its best to provide aid to the northwest. They visited a WFP centre in Sarmada and held a 40-minute meeting with officials at the Bab al Hawa crossing -- the only transit point on the Turkish border for UN aid deliveries to rebel-held areas. -- AFP
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