The earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria a week ago leaves more than 35,000 dead

The balance of earthquake that shook a week ago Turkey and Syria This Monday amounted to more than 35,000 dead and given the slim prospects of finding survivors, efforts are now focused on helping the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless.

But, although it is becoming more difficult, people are still alive among the rubble mountains of cities that were destroyed after the magnitude 7.8 tremor on February 6.

On Monday, a 12-year-old boy was rescued in Hatay province, 182 hours after the earthquake, Turkish media reported.

The confirmed balance is 35,224 deaths, 31,643 in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria, which makes this cataclysm the fifth deadliest since the beginning of the 21st century.

In Syria, the death toll has remained stable for days, so it is likely that the balance will rise soon.

The UN denounced the failure to send aid to Syria, a country already devastated by more than a decade of war.

In a closed-door meeting of the Security Council, convened by Switzerland and Brazil -in charge of the humanitarian file-, the head of UN emergencies, Martin Griffiths, who was in the Syrian city of Aleppo this Monday, has to present an assessment of the situation.

Destroyed places of worship

In the Turkish town of Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter, 30,000 tents have been set up and there are 48,000 homeless people in schools and another 11,500 people housed in sports centers.

Hatice Goz, a volunteer psychologist in Hatay province, said they receive “a deluge of calls” from desperate parents asking about their missing children.

The Turkish city of Antakya, a thousand-year-old town, known as Antioch in ancient times, was devastated and the earthquake demolished the oldest mosque in the country.

“This place has a very important meaning for us,” Havva Pamukcu lamented. “It was a precious place for all of us, Turks and Muslims. People used to come here before making the pilgrimage to Mecca.”

A few meters away, an Orthodox church founded in the 14th century –and rebuilt in 1870 after a previous earthquake –lost all its walls.

In the city, debris removal teams began to work and install emergency toilets. An AFP reporter said that he returned the phone signal.

A large contingent of police and military patrols in Antakya to prevent the looting that took place over the weekend.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Sunday that 108,000 buildings were damaged across the quake-hit area and that 1.2 million people are being housed in student rooms and 400,000 homeless people have been evacuated from the region.

The economic cost of the disaster could amount to more than $84 billion, the Turkonfed business federation estimated in a report on Monday.

In Turkey, outrage is growing over the poor quality of the buildings and the government response.

Conflict, covid, cholera

The situation is especially complex in Syria, where Bab al Hawa is the only point through which international aid can enter areas under rebel control after almost 12 years of civil war.

The supplies are vital for a country where the health system and infrastructure are in shambles after the conflict between Bashar al-Assad’s government and various rebel groups that control part of the territory.

Ten UN trucks passed through the Bab al Hawa crossing heading north-west of Syria, according to an AFP journalist.

The convoy carries materials such as plastics to make emergency shelters, ropes and blankets, but also tools such as screwdrivers and nails.

But, according to UN officials, far more is needed for the millions left homeless.

“Now we are focused on helping the Syrian people,” UN envoy Geir Pedersen said in Damascus.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Assad in the Syrian capital on Sunday and said the president had said he was willing to open more border crossings to help bring aid into rebel-held areas.

“The combined crises of conflict, covid, cholera, economic decline and now the earthquake, have taken an unbearable cost,” Tedros said after visiting Aleppo.