The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, has demanded this Friday from the Syrian city of Aleppo (north) a «total» access to humanitarian aid to «all the areas» affected by the earthquakes registered on Monday in the south of Turkey, near the common border.
«It is imperative that we have full humanitarian access to all affected areas. Humanitarian action must not be interrupted. This is a vital opportunity to depoliticize aid,» said Spoljaric, who stressed that «saving lives must be the collective priority.»
«It is difficult to find words to describe the level of loss, suffering and destruction we have seen and heard about. My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones in Syria and Turkey,» said Spoljaric, before stressing that «the fact that this earthquake has taken place in a war-torn region is nothing short of a catastrophe.»
Thus, he indicated that «people are exhausted and frightened» and stated that «their resilience has been shattered after years of conflict.» «In many places like Aleppo people had just started to return home to rebuild their lives. Now they have to survive in freezing temperatures and with nothing,» he said.
«The basic services needed to maintain clean water, heating, medical care and electricity were extremely weak before the earthquake. The humanitarian situation is even more dire today,» he said, adding that the ICRC «will do all it can to support people, whoever they are and wherever they are.»
Spoljaric also paid tribute to «volunteers and rescue teams» who work «day and night» to «save lives.» «Their continued efforts to help people hit by this disaster and the impacts of years of conflict are remarkable.»
For her part, Save the Children’s Director of Advocacy and Communications in Syria, Kathryn Achilles, said that «the situation in northwest Syria is unlike any other crisis in the world right now.» «From the loss of family and homes to the lack of food and clean water, the effects of this disaster have affected every single child,» she said.
In this regard, he has stressed that the UN humanitarian aid convoy that arrived in the area on Thursday «will provide vital assistance to desperate children and families, but these supplies are just the tip of the iceberg of what is needed.» «More efforts are needed to ensure that all children receive the assistance they desperately need,» he explained.
Anuar, a humanitarian worker with an organization the NGO partners with in northwestern Syria, has highlighted that the situation in Idlib is «tragic.» «The need is immense and beyond the current capacities of local Syrian humanitarian organizations in northern Syria,» he stressed.
«We hope that everyone will continue to provide aid to support the many families still on the streets, whether in Idlib or in the surrounding towns. We hope that international organizations and the international community will help us to overcome this crisis, this disaster, and help us to bring heavy machinery, to help those who are still trapped under the rubble, to help those who are still alive and to provide medical assistance,» he has assessed.
On the situation in Turkish territory, the coordinator of Save the Children’s Emergency Response Team in Turkey, Berna Koroglu, has stressed that the city of Antioch «has been annihilated by the earthquakes.» «The people we meet tell us that they have nothing left in the city and they just want to leave,» she said.
«They sleep in cars or makeshift shelters, there are no toilets or running water. Without toilets, people have no choice but to relieve themselves in the open, which can lead to waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever or dysentery, which are especially deadly for children,» he said.
«The affected regions urgently need humanitarian aid. The international community must do everything possible to support local humanitarian efforts to prevent a second humanitarian disaster,» he concluded.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
