Focus lies now on rescuing those beneath the rubble and ensuring aid reaches those impacted due to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey earlier this Monday.
The death toll has crossed the 24,000-mark and while miraculous extractions are being reported, the inclement weather - with rains and freezing temperatures - continues to pose a challenge for rescue teams, both Turkish and international.
Officials and medics said 20,665 people had died in Turkey and 3,553 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at 24,218, news agency AFP reported.
A large section of people are homeless in southern Turkey as well as northwestern Syria as parts of cities on either side of the border have turned into a pile of debris.
The UN said that 5.3 million people are now homeless in Syria and are living in tents. The agency also said that at least 870,000 people urgently needed food in the two countries.
A resident from the historic city of Antakya in Turkey - which is now mostly reduced to a pile of debris from fallen apartments - told news outlets that she is unsure about her future.
“It’s not that I can’t see where I will be in two or three years — I can’t imagine where I’ll be tomorrow,” Fidan Turan was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. Fidan later told AFP that she lost 60 of her extended family members.
Effects of war
The sufferings of those affected by the earthquake in Syria has been exacerbated because they were already suffering due to the ongoing Syrian civil war. Several parts of northwestern Syria were already gripped by the infighting between pro-Assad, government forces and the rebels and the Kurdistan rebels.
The rebels and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (considered to be a terrorist outfit by the Turkish government) have announced that they will temporarily halt hostilities while the Syrian government led by Assad said that aid will reach ‘every Syrian.’
In Syria, there are currently 545,000 internally displaced people and 45,000 refugees in the quake-hit regions, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.
Turkey Govt Faces Pressure, Backlash
The delay in response to the quake has angered citizens in parts of southern Turkey posing a challenge to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an election year.
Amid reports of lack of response, new reports have surfaced that Turkish local governments encouraged a real estate boom in earthquake-prone areas despite problems being pointed out by experts in geology and engineering.
Eyup Muhcu, president of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey, said many buildings in the quake-hit region were built with inferior materials and methods, and often did not comply with government standards.
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