UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations and its humanitarian partners will, this week, launch flash appeals for urgently-required funds to provide relief to thousands of victims in the quake-hit Turkiye and Syria, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths has said.
Griffiths made the remarks while speaking in the Turkish city of KahramanmaraÅŸ, where recovery efforts are underway in frigid temperatures, according to press release by the UN.
He met with families who had lost their homes in the disaster and listened to their stories of shock and devastation.
The top UN relief official also spoke with search and rescue teams as they continued their operations in the devastated central parts of the city, amid excavation equipment digging through the debris collapsed buildings.
UN teams are already on the ground, and over 130 countries have dispatched responders, sniffer dogs, experts and other personnel.
Griffiths praised the courage of people, including parents, who have been working round the clock in efforts to rescue their families and children the wreckage – “hoping for one more sound, for one more person to survive.”
Death toll from Turkiye-Syria Quake Passes 29,000
Estimatedly, more than 29,000 people have died in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck southeastern Turkiye and northern Syria in the early hours of Monday.
Millions of others have also been left homeless in the disaster, including Syrian refugees who had already been forced to leave their homes due to the 12-year war in their homeland.
–APP
