The UN allocates 25 million dollars to help the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said the international humanitarian community will provide active assistance at every step of the way out of this crisis.
According to the representative of the UN Secretary General, Stefan Dujarric, the UN coordinators are in the city of Adana today and will arrive in Gazientep tomorrow to help the Turkish rescue teams.
Among those affected by the earthquake in Syria, according to the UN, were families who had previously been displaced due to the ongoing conflict in Syria and were living in tents, flimsy shelters and partially destroyed houses. In Turkey, the victims of the earthquake include several thousand refugees from Syria and the communities that have hosted these refugees for nearly 12 years. Turkey’s ten earthquake-hit provinces are home to 15 million people, 700,000 of whom are Syrian refugees. In northern Syria, Aleppo and Latakia, around 57,000 Palestinian refugees have suffered from earthquakes.
The UN Refugee Agency and other UN humanitarian organizations are helping the Turkish government provide mattresses and tents to the victims. UNICEF’s efforts in Syria aim to ensure that children and their parents have access to clean water and sanitation to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
