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According to Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator, the dead toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria may “double or more” from the current figure of 28,000.
Griffiths landed on Saturday in the city of Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey, which served as the epicenter of the first 7.8-magnitude earthquake that upended millions of lives on Monday early morning.
In a Saturday interview with Sky News, he said of the death toll: “I think it is tough to quantify precisely as we need to dig under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double or more.”
He stated, “We haven’t really started counting the deceased.
There were 24,617 fatalities in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria, according to officials and medical personnel. As of right now, 28,191 have been confirmed.
Far though the bitter cold has made millions of people even more miserable and in even greater need of assistance, tens of thousands of rescuers are still searching destroyed neighborhoods.
At least 870,000 people in Turkey and Syria urgently require hot meals, according to a United Nations alert. The number of homeless individuals in Syria alone may reach 5.3 million.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 26 million people have been impacted by the earthquake. On Saturday, the WHO issued a quick appeal for $42.8 million to address urgent medical needs.
The disaster agency for Turkey reported that more than 32,000 people from Turkish organizations are contributing to the search and rescue operations. Additionally, 8,294 international rescuers are involved.
In a video shared on Twitter, Griffiths added, “Soon, the search and rescue people will make way for the humanitarian agencies whose job it is to look after the tremendous number of those affected for the coming months.”
