As per senior WHO officials, about 23 million people may be affected by the earthquake that killed thousands in southern Turkey and Syria. Read to know more.
A devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey:
Senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials on Tuesday stated Syria needed humanitarian needs following the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey. “This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region said the organization’s board meeting in Geneva. All over Syria, the needs are the highest after nearly 12 years of protracted, complex crisis, while humanitarian funding continues to decline,” stated Adelheid Marschang. Marschang is a Senior Emergency Officer at WHO.
As per their reports, Turkey has a strong capacity to respond to the problem. However, Syria has been grappling with long humanitarian crises from cholera and civil war in the region. According to Marschang about 23 million people including about 1.4 million children in total were exposed to the crisis. WHO is dispatching emergency supplies and activating its network of emergency medical teams.
More on the crisis after the shocks
Monday’s earthquake killed over 5,000 people. The 7.8 magnitude strong quake left widespread devastation across the affected region. So far Turkey has reported at least 3,400 losses of life and Syria 1,600. “It’s now a race against time. Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminish,” stated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Ghebreyesus is the Director-General of WHO. Additionally, he expressed concern about the regions affected by the earthquake. “Damage mapping is one way to understand where we need to focus our attention,” he added.