The death toll in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 surpassed 41,000 on the day the UN asked for help to raise $1 billion to help those two countries help.
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As the chances of finding survivors dwindle, official and medical sources said the total now stands at 41,732 people who have lost their lives: 38,044 in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria.
Turkish rescuers pulled a 17-year-old girl and a woman in her 20s from the rubble on Thursday, nearly 11 days after the quake that devastated the border area between the two countries.
In many towns and villages in both countries, rescuers are still desperately trying to help survivors, but with every hour that passes, the chances that they were able to survive in the freezing cold beneath the rubble increase.
Turkey has therefore suspended bailouts in some areas, and the government of 12-year-old war-torn Syria has done the same in areas it controls.
In Turkey, the earthquake makes it the deadliest natural disaster in the country’s post-Ottoman history.
A billion = three months
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday asked for international aid to raise $1 billion to help the two devastated countries.
“The funding — which will cover a three-month period — will help 5.2 million people and allow aid agencies to extend their critical support to government-led efforts” in earthquake-hit Turkey, the country’s most devastated country in a century , to step up.” Guterres wrote in a statement.
He “urged the international community to do more and fully fund this vital effort to respond to one of the greatest natural disasters of our time.”
“Turkey is home to the world’s largest number of refugees and has shown immense generosity towards its Syrian neighbor for years,” stressed the UN chief.
“Now is the time for the world to support the people of Turkey as they have simply done to others in search of help,” added Mr. Guterres, specifying that “the need was enormous, (that) people were suffering and (that) there was no time to lose”.
On the other hand, ArcelorMittal, the world’s second largest steel company, which described a “heartbreaking” situation, announced a $5 million donation to help victims in Turkey and Syria through humanitarian organizations Doctors Without Borders and Disaster Response Committee .
The US State Department announced on Wednesday that the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, would travel to Turkey on Sunday to review ongoing humanitarian efforts there.
Mr Blinken must first go to Incirlik air base in the south-east of the country, from where some of the humanitarian aid to the disaster areas departs, then to Ankara, where he has scheduled talks with the Turkish authorities for Sunday and Monday.