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LAST UPDATE | 9 Feb 2023
THE DEATH TOLL from the massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has climbed to more than 21,000, as hopes fade of finding survivors stuck under rubble in freezing weather.
Officials and medics said 17,674 people had died in Turkey and 3,377 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 21,051.
An aid convoy has today reached rebel-held northwestern Syria, the first since a devastating earthquake that has killed thousands.
“The first UN aid convoy entered today,” said Mazen Alloush, media officer at the crossing.
An AFP correspondent saw six trucks passing through the crossing from Turkey, carrying tents and hygiene products.
Alloush noted the delivery had been expected before Monday’s quake, but said: “It could be considered an initial response from the United Nations, and it should be followed, as we were promised, with bigger convoys to help our people.”
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement the delivery includes blankets, mattresses, tents and “basic relief items … to cover the needs of at least 5,000 people”.
“We are working very closely with authorities to support in any way we can and hope that aid will quickly reach those most impacted,” said IOM head Antonio Vitorino.
But the White Helmets rescue group that operates in rebel-held areas said they were disappointed by the aid, which they said was part of “routine” deliveries.
“This is certainly not special aid and equipment for search and rescue teams,” they said in a statement on Twitter.
“This makes us very disappointed at a time when we are desperate for such equipment to help us save lives from under the rubble.”
A group of leading Irish humanitarian organisations have launched a joint-appeal calling on the Irish public to help support people impacted by the earthquake. People can donate online here.
The White Helmets had earlier appealed for international help in their “race against time”.
The UK government said today it would provide “at least an additional £3 million in funding, bringing our total to £3.8m” to support the White Helmets.
“The funding will go to support recovery projects including assessing building safety, reopening roads and reconnecting utilities,” it said in a statement.
The aid delivery mechanism from Turkey into rebel-held areas of Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing is the only way UN assistance can reach civilians without passing through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.
While the crossing itself was not affected by the quake, the road leading to it was damaged, temporarily disrupting operations, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.
UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said today that the emergency response in Syria should “not be politicised” following “one of the most catastrophic earthquakes the region has seen in about a century”.
He told reporters in Geneva that the UN had been “assured today that we would be able to get through the first assistance”.
Syria has been under Western sanctions since the government’s brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011 which spiraled into a civil war.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border humanitarian aid points between Turkey and Syria to deliver aid.
“This is the moment of unity, it’s not a moment to politicise or to divide but it is obvious that we need massive support,” Guterres told reporters.
World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said he is heading to Syria.
“On my way to #Syria, where @WHO is supporting essential health care in the areas affected by the recent earthquake, building on our long-standing work across the country,” the WHO chief tweeted.
Planes carrying aid from the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran and other countries have landed since Monday in Syrian government-controlled airports in Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia.
Rescuers have been searching for survivors still trapped under rubble.
The UN’s resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told AFP yesterday that no fresh deliveries of humanitarian aid had been sent to the rebel-held northwest from within Syria in about three weeks.
He said the UN has some stocks in the area – enough to feed 100,000 people for one week.
Speaking from Damascus, Benlamlih said the destruction in government-held provinces “is huge”.
“But we know also that the destruction in the northwest is huge and we need to get there to assess.”
Elsewhere in Syria, dozens of families have fled their flooded northerwestern village after a dam collapsed, an AFP correspondent said.
Water has partially submerged houses and trees in rebel-held Tloul.
Hopes are fading for rescuing survivors of the earthquake, with experts fearing the death toll will continue to rise sharply.
Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed.
Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital car park in Turkey’s southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy.
A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages.
Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius early today, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents – too scared or banned from returning to their homes.
Parents walked the streets of the city – close to the epicentre of Monday’s earthquake – carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.
Some people have found sanctuary with neighbours or relatives. Some have left the region, but many have nowhere to go.
Gyms, mosques, schools and some stores have opened up at night. But beds are still at a premium and thousands spend the nights in cars with engines running to provide heat.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after mounting criticism online over the initial disaster response, visited one of the hardest-hit spots, Kahramanmaras, and acknowledged problems.
“Of course, there are shortcomings. The conditions are clear to see. It’s not possible to be ready for a disaster like this,” he said yesterday.
Irish humanitarian aid organisations are scaling up their emergency response in Turkey and Syria following Monday’s devastating earthquake.
Dóchas, the Irish association of non-governmental development organisations, yesterday said Irish NGOs are on the ground and working through local partners to help the survivors.
The following Irish aid organisations have launched emergency appeals to support the relief effort:
Today, Irish Emergency Alliance members also launched a joint-appeal calling on the Irish public to help support people impacted by the quake.
Irish Emergency Alliance members include Action Aid, Christian Aid, Plan International, Tearfund, Trócaire and World Vision Ireland.
“This is a time for concerted, united action,” Irish Emergency Alliance executive director Brian Casey said.
“The impacts of these earthquakes have been devastating. In the midst of an already harsh winter, vulnerable children, families and others have been shaken to the core by the devastating earthquakes,” Casey said.
“People have been left without shelter in freezing winter conditions, with humanatarian needs expected to grow in the coming days,” he said.
Casey said that access to clean water will likely be a challenge, “bringing the risk of cholera and other diseases”.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Monday announced that Ireland will send €2 million in emergency assistance to Turkey and Syria.
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the €2 million allocation is in direct response to the emergency appeal for funding from the Government of Turkey and aid agencies working in Turkey and northwest Syria.
The United States this evening announced a $85 million package for emergency relief.
The US Agency for International Development said that the funding will go to partners on the ground “to deliver urgently needed aid for millions of people” including through food, shelter and emergency health services.
The funding will also support safe drinking water and sanitation to prevent the outbreak of disease, USAID said in a statement.
The Turkey-Syria border is one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.
Monday’s quake was the largest Turkey has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people died in the eastern Erzincan province.
In 1999, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake killed more than 17,000.
With reporting by – © AFP 2023
In general I am in favour of gun control in that I think it should be difficult to obtain a licence, there should be Garda Vetting and I also think that a Doctors Cert should be required. However once these conditions are complied with then I see no reason do deny a licence.
It is extremely rare that legal guns are used to commit a crime.
True but even gun owners like myself are often looked at by the Gardai as criminals when renewing our license….I think they resent us having guns in the first place.
It is difficult. We jump through hoops We are vetted, they have access to all our medical records. What else do you need?
When the owner’s licence is revoked, what happens to the firearm?
The gards take it and they then surrender it to a licenced gun Smith who will sell it on. The profit from the gun is given to charity im told.
@seeingeye It is used in a mass killing rampage
Dealer sells it and owner get the money less selling fee
It gets handed back to the shinners
Yes and then they recycle it into printer cartridges.
Which they use to print posters advertising their cheap diesel
And sell their cheap diesel to buy first class plane tickets.
To use the private health care facilities in other countries
And stay in the lap of luxury at the expense of a “friend” while undergoing treatment.
In preparation for the “cultural enrichment” program?
And all while Germans are arming themselves in record numbers. I wonder why
http://thelondonpost.net/more-germans-are-arming-themselves/
The garda take the gun and the owner never hears of it again and no money is handed over. Thats what happened me anyway, I had a rifle and was a member of a target shooting club, got bored so handed the gun into the garda.
” When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
So it will end up only the criminals owning weapons? Sure why would you need a gun anyway with the hiards of Gardai keeping crime at its lowest level for years…………………………not
Hoards of….
Gus, these controls are already in place and many more. Ireland most likely has the most restrictive firearms licensing in Europe.
Sorry, meant to reply to p o foghlu
Gus. if you had made this comment 3 to 4 years ago you would have got nearly all thumbs down. As I’ve said many times, if a man with a sweeping brush meets a man with a baseball bath, the man with the sweeping brush is a dead man!
This article is listed as Gun Crime ? What is that about ?
It involves guns!
It’s my money, I just don’t like filling up the forms.
I had the licence for my grandfathers antique gun collection revoked because “I had no need to own a gun”. I had to surrender the guns to a smith and they they are just sitting there in a safe.
I had no live ammunition on the premises and from what I can tell these guns haven’t been fired for 50+ years. They are just a family heirloom. While I understand gun control is important, I hardly think many drug gangs are lining up at their local Garda stations to register their antique weapons form the 1910′s.
The only reason they are clamping down on what are legally held firearms is that they have failed miserably to deal with burglary.
That’s where the legally held firearms are getting into criminal hands. This is just passing the buck.
The proper criminals would thumb their nose at these firearms anyway, they can get new semi automatic pistols imported for peanuts.
Once again the law abiding get shafted for a bogus reason.
Do you think that “having a nice antique that I inherited from my grandad” is a sufficient reason to be awarded a firearms certificate?
Most revoking of firearms due to admin errors by guards eg license for bolt action wrongly issued as pump action, to correct error guards revoke original and issue new license?
Hope we never have to defend ourselves.. Big sticks all round.
A ‘gun-grab’ is the normal practice of a Fascist regime.
It says enough about this FG/liebour government, that they feel the need for an armed Gárda escort to go canvassing.
Well obviously the revoking of legally held firearms makes illegally held firearms just … disappear?
Really helped with the illegal AK’s used to kill a lad at that boxing match.
Previous posts are bang on -the Republic of Ireland already has the strictest gun laws in Europe, if not the western World. Gun controls are a necessary part of life – nobody wants to end up like the US – but removing sporting firearms from citizens that have no criminal record and use daid firearms within the legal parameters of sport is simply Fine Gael extending its fascist policies. All fascist states want their law abiding citizens disarmed, it is part of the ideology. It will have no effect on gun crime – the most mooted reason for depriving citizens of sporting firearms – because criminals have easy access to high tech weaponry that the state has been unable to impede, to a level of incompetence only equalled by their dismal record with the health service. Deflection by Fine Gael/Labour of the lowest sort – they know that mentioning firearms abolition will curry favour with John Q citizen that does not understand how tightly controlled they are in the first place. Despicable, playing on voters uninformed fears. The sooner Fine Gael.and Labour are out of power, the better for the country and its citizens.
Why are licenses being given when there is no good reason for the owner to have one in the first place!?
Have you ever heard of hunting or clay pigeon shooting? Some people enjoy those pastimes
They might have had a good reason when they initially applied. If they’ve held the licence a few years and renew it annually but no longer use it for it’s original purpose then the licence will be revoked as there’s no good reason to hold one.
Michael, respectfully, just because YOU have no good reason doesn’t mean others are the same way…. not everyone has to have the same hobbies.
No side-by-side double-barelled shotguns listed. Proper shotguns for proper shooting people.
If a gun owner is involved in an altercation with someone for any reason and the gardai get involved they can confiscate firearms from them as a matter of form just in case the dispute may continue. Just remove the possibility of the gun being used in the dispute. They may or may not get the gun back in the future. All depends on their role in the dispute.
have your say