GENEVA: Senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Tuesday Syria’s humanitarian needs were highest after a major earthquake that killed thousands there and in the south from Turkey.
Adelheid Marschangsenior WHO emergency officer said Turkey had a strong capacity to respond to the crisis, but the main immediate and medium-term unmet needs would be across the border in Syria , already struggling with a years-long humanitarian crisis due to civil war and a cholera outbreak.
“This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region, she said at the organization’s board meeting in Geneva,” she said. .
“Across Syria, needs are at their highest after nearly 12 years of protracted and complex crisis, as humanitarian funding continues to decline.
She said some 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, were likely to be at risk in the two countries as a result of the earthquake and its aftershocks which reduced thousands of buildings to rubble.
The WHO said it was sending emergency supplies, including emergency trauma and surgery kits, and activating a network of emergency medical teams.
‘Now it’s a race against time,’ says WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “With each minute, each hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive decreases.
He said the WHO was particularly concerned about areas in Turkey and Syria where no information had emerged since Monday’s earthquake.
“Damage mapping is a way to understand where we need to focus our attention,” he said.
Adelheid Marschangsenior WHO emergency officer said Turkey had a strong capacity to respond to the crisis, but the main immediate and medium-term unmet needs would be across the border in Syria , already struggling with a years-long humanitarian crisis due to civil war and a cholera outbreak.
“This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region, she said at the organization’s board meeting in Geneva,” she said. .
“Across Syria, needs are at their highest after nearly 12 years of protracted and complex crisis, as humanitarian funding continues to decline.
She said some 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, were likely to be at risk in the two countries as a result of the earthquake and its aftershocks which reduced thousands of buildings to rubble.
The WHO said it was sending emergency supplies, including emergency trauma and surgery kits, and activating a network of emergency medical teams.
‘Now it’s a race against time,’ says WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “With each minute, each hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive decreases.
He said the WHO was particularly concerned about areas in Turkey and Syria where no information had emerged since Monday’s earthquake.
“Damage mapping is a way to understand where we need to focus our attention,” he said.
