Rescue workers and volunteers are searching for survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building in Şanlıurfa, Turkey (photo: AFP). Adelheid Marschang, the World Health Organization’s senior emergency officer, estimates that about 23 million people—including 1.4 million children—are likely to be exposed to the effects of the earthquake and its aftershocks, which have reduced thousands of structures to debris.
Marschang noted that Turkey has a strong capacity to respond to the crisis, but most supplies are expected to be routed through Syria, a country already grappling with a prolonged humanitarian emergency, civil war, and a cholera outbreak, according to the UK Guardian. “This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region,” she said. “All over Syria, the needs are the highest after nearly 12 years of protracted, complex crisis, while humanitarian funding continues to decline.”
The WHO is dispatching emergency supplies, including trauma and surgical kits, and activating a network of emergency medical teams. WHO Director‑General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned, “It’s now a race against time. Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminishes.” He expressed particular concern for areas of Turkey and Syria from which no information has emerged since the earthquake on Monday, adding that damage mapping is essential to focus the response.
To date, two children have been rescued from the ruins of a collapsed building. One young boy was saved by emergency workers in Syria after being trapped for more than 20 hours. Both children had been displaced by the Syrian civil war.
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