UN appeals for nearly $400 mn for Syria quake victims

UN appeals for nearly $400 mn for Syria quake victims
by AFP Staff Writers
United Nations, United States (AFP) Feb 15, 2023

The United Nations launched an appeal for $397 million on Tuesday to help earthquake victims in Syria, where the disaster has killed thousands of people and left millions more in desperate need of aid.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, announcing the appeal at the UN headquarters in New York, said the funds would bring "life-saving relief" for nearly five million Syrians and would cover a period of three months.

He added that the world body was in the final stages of a similar appeal for Turkey.

"One week after the devastating earthquakes, millions of people across the region are struggling for survival, homeless and in freezing temperatures. We are doing all we can to change this. But much more is needed," Guterres pleaded.

He called on member states to "fully fund this effort without delay and help the millions of children, women and men whose lives have been upended by this generational disaster."

Guterres also urged that aid workers be allowed to operate freely in Syria, already racked by 12 years of civil war.

Activists and emergency teams in Syria's northwest have decried the slow UN response to the quake in rebel-held areas, contrasting it with the planeloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports.

Before the earthquake struck, almost all of the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in rebel-controlled areas of northwest Syria was being delivered through just one crossing.

Guterres announced on Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to open two more border crossings from Turkey to northwest Syria to allow in aid.

"The human suffering from this epic natural disaster should not be made even worse by manmade obstacles -- access, funding, supplies," said the UN chief.

"Aid must get through from all sides, to all sides, through all routes -- without any restrictions."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Guterres about aid the prospects Tuesday, and called for potential international pressure on opening the border crossings, the State Department said.

"Secretary Blinken underscored the need for the Assad regime to meet its commitment, as stated to the UN on February 13, to open the Bab Al Salam and Al Rai border crossings for humanitarian purposes, including through Security Council authorization, if necessary," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

The United Nations has already provided $50 million through its central emergency response fund.

b>More than 7 mn children affected by Turkey-Syria quake: UN
Geneva (AFP) Feb 14, 2023 - More than seven million children have been affected by the massive earthquake and a major aftershock that devastated Turkey and Syria last week, the United Nations said Tuesday, voicing fear that "many thousands" more had died.

"In Turkey, the total number of children living in the 10 provinces hit by the two earthquakes was 4.6 million children. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected," James Elder, spokesman for the UN children's agency Unicef, told reporters in Geneva.

He spoke as rescue teams began winding down the search for survivors from the disastrous quake that has left more than 35,000 dead in the two countries.

"Unicef fears many thousands of children have been killed," Elder said, warning that "even without verified numbers, it is tragically clear that numbers will continue grow."

He said he feared the final toll would be "mind-boggling."

Given the catastrophic, and ever-increasing, death toll, he said it was obvious that "many, many children will have lost parents in these devastating earthquakes."

"It will be a terrifying figure," he warned.

Among the rubble, hundreds of thousands of homeless people face cold and hunger.

Families with children were "sleeping in the streets, malls, schools, mosques, bus stations and under bridges, staying with their children in open areas for fear of going home," he said.

"Tens of thousands of families are exposed to the elements at a time of year when temperatures are bitingly cold, and snow and freezing rain are common," he said, pointing to reports of rising numbers of children suffering from hypothermia and respiratory infections.