World ’s Deadliest Earthquake Leaves over 33,000 Dead

“A child in North Syria passing by the ruins, after the earthquake hit his town.” - Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)By Sania FarooquiNEW DELHI, India, Feb 13 2023 (IPS) Almost over 33,000 people have been killed and thousands injured by the 7.8 earthquake which struck south-eastern Turkey and Syria in the early hours on Monday, February 6th. The first images that came out were of collapsed buildings, rubble strewn across streets, people trapped under rubbles, screaming for help. What followed was the unusually strong aftershock – including one quake which was almost as large as the first. Rawan Kahwaji was fast asleep in her apartment in Gaziantep, in Turkey when she woke up to the sounds of people screaming. The first two minutes, she says, did not make sense to her. “It was a nightmare, I remember waking up not knowing what was going on. My apartment was shaking really hard and it went on for sometime, we didn’t expect it to be this bad, we just thought we would get out of the apartment for a few hours because earthquakes happen quite regularly. But this time with each hour that we spent waiting outside, following the aftershocks, we realised the situation was much worse,” Kahwaji said. War in Syria had displaced Kahwaji and her family once, before they moved to Gaziantep in 2015. For many displaced like her, documents which included ID, educational degrees and travel documents meant more than anything for survival. “In the middle of that chaos, w...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Aid Featured Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Middle East & North Africa Migration & Refugees TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Source Type: news