Ashish Ranjan
Only two weeks after the area was hit by a massive earthquake that killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, another earthquake slammed the border region of Turkey and Syria on Monday.
Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon were all affected by Monday’s earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.4 and was centred close to the city of Antakya in southern Turkey.
According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), it happened at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).
Hatay Mayor Lutfu Savas said the HaberTurk broadcaster that he has heard stories of some individuals being trapped under debris during the most recent earthquake. According to Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, there were three fatalities and over 200 injuries.
Residents in Samandag reported more houses collapsing although the majority of the population had already fled following the initial tremors, according to the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority AFAD, which recorded one person killed there. The streets were dark and deserted, surrounded with piles of trash and furniture.
Muna Al Omar claimed that as the ground began to tremble once more, she was in a tent in a park in the heart of Antakya.
While sobbing and clutching her 7-year-old son in her arms, she added, “I felt the earth was going to break up under my feet.
At a time when rescue efforts following the earthquake and its aftershocks on February 6 were winding down and attention was shifting to the urgent need for shelter and reconstruction work, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had earlier pledged that Washington would assist “for as long as it takes” while on a visit to Turkey.
The number of fatalities from the earthquakes two weeks ago in Turkey increased to 41,156, according to AFAD on Monday. With 385,000 apartments reportedly destroyed or seriously damaged and numerous people still unaccounted for, the death toll was expected to rise.
Construction on roughly 200,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-stricken areas of Turkey will start next month, according to President Tayyip Erdogan.
According to the U.S. State Department, $185 million has been allocated in total by the United States for humanitarian aid to support the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria.
According to the U.N. agency for sexual and reproductive health, there are about 356,000 pregnant survivors of the earthquakes who urgently need access to medical care.
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These include 130,000 women in Syria and 226,000 women in Turkey, with roughly 38,800 of them due to give birth in the coming month. Many of them were battling for food and water while living in camps or outside in the bitter cold.
