Background and Situational Overview

On the 6th of February 2023 a huge earthquake struck Türkiye’s southeastern border with Syria with a 7.8 magnitude at 01:17 UTC. Other waves followed the initial earthquake including a 7.6 magnitude tremor hit the same region in less at 10:24 UTC. These earthquakes caused material and human losses as a result of the collapse of residential buildings.

Death toll from earthquakes has surpassed 37,000. The UN estimates up to 5.3 million people in Syria may be homeless after the earthquakes. Nearly 900,000 people are in urgent need of hot food in Turkey and Syria. This stat is based on today’s reports (14/02/2023).

The Syrian government has approved the delivery of humanitarian aid to quake-hit areas outside its control, according to state media.

Turkey says it is working to open two new routes into rebel-held parts of Syria. Action For Humanity/ Syria Relief has already been operating in some of the areas since the earthquake broke out and we call on partners to assist us with further funding so that we are able to escalate our response.

The efforts of search and rescue continue to take place and the number of casualties is expected to increase drastically in both countries as many are still missing and under rubble. As the cold continues the rescue efforts are getting more difficult and chances of survival lower.

In Syria, Idlib and Aleppo governorates are particularly impacted. 4.1 million individuals were already relying on cross-border humanitarian assistance across the two governorates in North-West Syria, including over 1.87 million IDPs living in 1,421 last resort IDP sites. In addition, at this time, the northwest Syria is also subject to harsh winter events including heavy rain and snowstorms. Moreover, the situation is becoming more difficult as the region’s infrastructure and resources have been exacerbated by the brutal conflict for more than 12 years. People are using their bare hands to search and rescue their beloved from below the rubbles of the hundreds of buildings that were totally destroyed.

Syria Relief/ Action for Humanity has lost three colleagues in the disaster while they were doing their jobs. Please see the details below as to where Action For Humanity/ Syria Relief are responding.

Source: Syria Relief