UN Aid Chief: We Disappointed Syrian People, They Feel Abandoned

JAKARTA - The head of United Nations (UN) aid has highlighted the slow pace of humanitarian assistance which is seen as disappointing for the Syrian people, a week after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey rocked the country last Monday and the death toll continues to rise.

Martin Griffiths, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, described the devastating scenes he witnessed in Turkey when he visited earthquake-hit areas.

The international community is trying to provide assistance to those affected by the earthquake and around 100 countries have sent aid and rescue workers to the region.

"On the Turkey-Syria border today. We have failed the people of northwestern Syria so far," Griffiths said on Twitter," quoted from The National News, February 13.

"They really feel left out. They are looking for international assistance that hasn't arrived yet," he said.

Griffiths said his main focus and task now is to "repair these failures as quickly as possible." He added that usually in natural disasters the water supply is "contaminated" and spreads disease, warning of a second wave of cholera in Syria.

Griffiths further described the quake as the worst event in the region in 100 years, estimating the death toll would at least double.

He praised Turkey's response, citing his experience that disaster victims are always let down by early relief efforts.

Tens of thousands of rescue workers continue to scour the parched environment with cold weather which has deepened the misery of millions who now desperately need help. In Turkey alone, some 13 million people live in a zone of massive destruction, some 500 km in diameter.

Security concerns caused some relief operations to be suspended, and dozens of people were arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims after the quake in Turkey, according to state media.

Some people are miraculously still alive, barely a week after the disaster, as incredible survival stories keep popping up.

Three Emiratis survived the earthquake in Turkey after they were trapped in a hotel when a wall collapsed.

Mohammed Al Hrmoodi (26), Majed Abdulrhman (24) and Ahmed Al Yassi (26) were sleeping at the Northhill Hotel in Antakya when the earthquake occurred. They awoke to the building shaking and the deafening sound of cracking concrete and windows, but were able to escape unharmed.

Separately, the situation in earthquake-ravaged areas in Turkey and Syria is grave, said Secretary of State at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Andrew Mitchell.

"Unfortunately, this is the worst crisis, the worst earthquake we've had of course since Nepal (2015), probably since Haiti (2010)," he told Sky News.

He estimated the death toll could be as high as 50.000, supporting Griffith's assessment that it could increase dramatically.

"I think the figure that the UN emergency coordinator gave yesterday was in the 50.000 range, I'm afraid, which we will see," he explained.

Mitchell said there was "a good organization of relief efforts in Turkey, but in war-torn Syria's dispossessed space, the situation is more difficult.

Meanwhile, the European Union Envoy to Syria on Sunday urged the authorities in Damascus to engage in good faith with aid workers, to provide assistance to those in need.

"It is important to allow unhindered access for aid to arrive in all areas where it is needed," Dan Stoenescu told Reuters.

"Blaming each other is not constructive and does not help us provide assistance to those who are in dire need and distress in a more timely manner, but on the contrary," he said.

It is known that the death toll throughout Turkey and Syria due to the earthquake disaster has reached at least 34.179 people as of Sunday, citing CNN.

In Turkey, the death toll from the earthquake has reached 29.605, the Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM said Sunday.

Meanwhile, the confirmed death toll in Syria reached 4.574. The number includes more than 3,160 in the opposition-controlled part of northwestern Syria, according to the health ministry, the governmental authority of the Government of Salvation.

Syria's death toll also includes 1.414 deaths in government-controlled areas of Syria, according to state news agency SANA.