The rescue teams continue their work to rescue more people, although the hopes of finding life are running out and little by little the search work is stopped. In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad made his first public appearance and a second humanitarian aid convoy managed to enter the country. In Turkey, the independence group PKK announced a ceasefire, while the Government announced the start of evacuations of victims to different parts of the country.
In both Syria and Turkey, the survivors face difficult conditions due to the extreme cold of winter and the snowfall that has occurred in the last few hours, in addition, many of them have been left homeless and are seeking refuge.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the “secondary disaster” that those who survived may face and warned of “horrifying conditions that worsen”.
In Syria, the situation is even more complicated by the civil war that the Arab country has been experiencing for almost 12 years and that despite having a constituted government, some rebel groups are the ones in control of the areas where the catastrophe occurred.
Due to international pressure, this Friday, February 10, a second UN convoy made up of 14 trucks arrived in northeastern Syria with aid for the survivors of the tragedy.
Through the only open pass, the convoy managed to cross the southern border it shares with Turkey.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Paul Dillon said the road where the convoy passed was badly affected by the quakes, but he managed to get there with non-food aid: tents, blankets, clothing and bedding systems. heating for about 16,000 people.
The IOM announced that it plans to send more humanitarian aid material “as soon as possible” to the opposition areas of northeastern Syria to attend to those affected by the catastrophe and where it is feared that there is an underreporting of victims. According to official figures, there are more than 3,300 dead and some 5,200 wounded in Syria alone.
“Our supply chain is strong and we have already started to replace the items we ship and are sourcing more,” the IOM source said.
The organization has been criticized because its shipments do not include food or machinery for rescue work. However, doing so is very challenging, as the only way to achieve this is by sending supplies from areas inside Syria that are held by rebels.
Bashar al-Assad makes his first appearance in the area of the tragedy
The Syrian government declared four “catastrophe zones” that were hit hard and are under its control.
“The Council of Ministers today declared disaster zones to the areas affected by the earthquake in the regions of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Idlib,” reported the Syrian news agency SANA.
For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made his first public appearance since the tragedy occurred and visited a hospital in the administrative demarcation of Aleppo, one of the hardest hit.
Despite the president’s silence in recent days, several members of the Cabinet of Ministers and the country’s prime minister, Hussein Arnous, have made various public announcements, such as the approval of an equivalent of 7.5 million dollars to finance the work rescue.
They have also reported the arrival of at least 40 planes loaded with humanitarian aid and that they have managed to land at airports controlled by Damascus, while the authorities continue to ask the international community to lift sanctions against them.
PKK announces temporary cessation of activities in Turkey
The Kurdish guerrilla of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which operates in some of the areas devastated by the earthquakes, announced the cessation of its armed activities to allow rescue work and the passage of humanitarian aid.
“We urge all our forces to stop their military actions in Turkey. We have decided not to take action unless the Turkish state comes against us and attacks us,” said Cemil Bayik, one of the PKK leaders.
They claim to be committed to rebuilding the country after the earthquakes, which have already left more than 19,000 dead in Turkey.
The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union and began its armed struggle in 1984, demanding autonomy for the estimated 12 million Kurds living in the Eurasian country.
More than 700 flights to evacuate survivors from the disaster zone
The Turkish authorities began the evacuations of thousands of victims to house them in different parts of the country. The national airline, Turkish Airlines, said it plans to evacuate 27,000 people this Friday alone.
“We will have evacuated 125,957 people with the 709 flights from February 6 to the end of today,” a Turkish Airlines spokesperson said on Twitter.
For its part, the Turkish Navy announced that it will make five ships available to society to evacuate people who are in coastal areas where there are no habitable buildings.
The evacuees are expected to be temporarily accommodated in hotels in tourist cities in southern Turkey, such as Antalya, where there is currently little hotel occupancy due to low season.
Some 13.4 million people lived in the 10 provinces affected by the catastrophe, where it was declared an emergency zone, and it is still unknown how many of them were left homeless.
Many of the victims have evacuated on their own to western provinces, causing huge traffic jams on the roads.
With EFE and local media
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