The death toll from earthquakes in Turkey and Syria will exceed 40 thousand people. This assumption was made on February 11 in an interview with Sky News TV channel by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, who is in Adana, Turkey.
“It is very difficult to give an exact estimate <...> but I am sure that the number [погибших] double or more,” he said.
Griffiths also acknowledged that it will be much more difficult for Syria to deal with the aftermath of the disaster due to “the devastating years of civil war.”
He added that, despite Syria’s generous donations, the needs of citizens there are only growing year by year. And in complete poverty, according to him, at present there is 90% of the population.
Earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred on February 6 in the province of Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey near the border with Syria.
According to the latest data, the death toll in the country due to the earthquake has already exceeded 21 thousand, 80 thousand received various injuries. In Syria, 1387 people were killed, another 2326 were injured.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called the situation in the republic after the earthquake catastrophic. He assured that everything would be done to restore the districts and help people.
