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Turkey: Rescuers have been able to rescue a 17-year-old girl alive from the rubble 248 hours after a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on 6 February. According to the reporte, Elina Olmez, who was buried under the debris of the collapse of the Atabe apartment building in Kayabasi, Kahramanmaras, was rescued by rescuers.
Elina Olmez has been taken to the hospital. Even today many lives are being rescued safely in the devastating earthquake in Turkey. So far dead bodies of more than 42,000 people have been recovered in it, whereas, its figure is increasing daily. The United Nations launched a $1 billion appeal Thursday to help 5.2 million survivors of the most devastating earthquake in Turkey’s modern history, two days after starting a $397 million appeal to help nearly 5 million Syrians across the border in the rebel-held northwest.
Officials said the death toll from the deadliest earthquake in Turkey’s history has risen to 36,187, while the death toll in Syria has reached 5,800. However, the death toll is increasing day by day. Turkish and Syrian officials have not given information about how many people are missing in this, but many people are being rescued daily.
The Syrian government declared the death toll in the area under its control to be 1,414 and said it was the final figure. Most of the deaths in Syria have occurred in the opposition-held northwest, but rescuers say no survivors have been found there since February 9. At the moment, the people who were rescued are being protected and helped. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric was peppered with questions about why the appeal for Turkey is targeted at only 5.2 million people when according to the U.N. and the government more than 15 million people were affected.
He also was asked why the appeal for Turkey is 2½ times larger than the one for Syria to help almost the same number of people. He said the Turkish appeal “was designed in very close cooperation with the government of Turkey, which is leading the relief efforts.” “This is the number they came up with for the focus on people who need the most humanitarian aid, most quickly, and where the U.N. can be most effective,” Dujarric said. He said Turkey has “a very efficient search and rescue and humanitarian system.”
As for the disparity in the amount of the appeals, he said, part of the reason is that “there is already a well-established humanitarian community which has been working in Syria,” and before the quake there was a $4.8 billion humanitarian appeal for Syria for 2023.
