Devastating earthquakes wreaked havoc on Turkey and parts of Syria, killing thousands of people. Turkish President Erdogan has acknowledged “shortcomings” in the government’s quake response. The massive earthquake has killed over 15,000 people in the two countries.
Meanwhile, amid growing criticism over poor response, Erdogan visited one of the hardest-hit spots, quake epicentre Kahramanmaras. He also acknowledged the issues that were reported in the response.
He said, “Of course, there are shortcomings. The conditions are clear to see. It’s not possible to be ready for a disaster like this.”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a worse secondary health crisis in the areas hit by the earthquake. The world health body said there was a race against time to save lives and also ensure survivors stay alive in dire circumstances.
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As quoted by the news agencies, Robert Holden, who is WHO’s earthquake response incident manager, said that the focus was on saving lives but insisted it was “imperative to make sure that those who survived the initial disaster… continue to survive”.
He further said, “We’ve got a lot of people who have survived now out in the open, in worsening and horrific conditions with disrupted access to water, fuel, electricity and communications.”
Holden told a press conference in Geneva, “We are in real danger of seeing a secondary disaster which may cause harm to more people than the initial disaster if we don’t move with the same pace and intensity as we are doing on the search and rescue.”
“This is no easy task… The scale of the operation is massive,” he added.
‘Put politics aside’
Meanwhile, a leading United Nations official urged to stop the politics and urged to facilitate aid access to rebel-held areas in Syria’s northwest. The official warned that the relief stocks will soon be depleted.
The UN’s resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih said in an interview with the news agency AFP: “Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work. We can’t afford to wait and negotiate. By the time we negotiate, it’s done, it’s finished.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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