“Up to 5.3 million people may be displaced by the earthquake,” UNHCR representative in Syria Sivanka Dana Bala told a news conference in Geneva, referring to preliminary estimates of people who will need shelter in all affected areas of the country.
“This is a huge number for a people who are already suffering from mass exodus,” he said.
Syria crisis
- Since 2011, Syria has been witnessing a conflict that has displaced half of its population of about 22 million, inside and outside the country.
- The wave of displacement in Syria is one of the largest in the world since World War II.
- The devastation resulting from the earthquake, centered on Turkey, affected 5 Syrian governorates: Idlib (northwest), Aleppo (north), Hama (center), Latakia and Tartous (west).
- The earthquake has so far claimed more than 22,300 lives in Syria and Turkey, including more than 3,300 in Syria.
Search in the ruins
- Since Monday dawn, residents and medics in several Syrian governorates have been preoccupied with searching for survivors under the rubble, amid limited capabilities, with fewer chances of finding survivors.
- In Syria, survivors have taken refuge in camps for the displaced near the Turkish border, or in temporary shelters established by the authorities in the stricken governorates. Some of them also slept in the streets, courtyards, and fields, or even chose to spend their nights in cars.
- “In Syria, it is a crisis within a crisis,” said the UNHCR representative.
Details of the Turkey and Syria earthquake
- A 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Turkey and Syria early Monday morning.
- The earthquake was felt by residents of Cyprus, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.
- The German Center for Geosciences Research said that the earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers near the city of Kahramanmaraş.
- The earthquake was followed by a number of aftershocks.
#United #Nations #earthquake #displaced #million #people #Syria