Attachments
A devastating earthquake of 7.4 Richter Scale hit in the midnight (3.10 am) South Turkey centred in Kahramanmaras and affected an area of around 400 km around including the big industrial cities of Turkey Gaziantep, Adana, and the surrounding cities of Hatay, Malatya, Kilis, Diyarbakir Adiyaman where around 12 million people including around 2 million Syrian refugees live.
The earthquake hit North Syria Aleppo and Idleb too.
Thousands of buildings collapsed including two hospitals one in Malatya and the other in Hatay. Hotels ruined to level scale.
Turkish Interior Minister issued an international assistance call and stated that they mobilised the state emergency teams and priority is given fort he rescue of tens of thousand people under collapsed building in the region.
The weather is not helping too. Heavy snow in entire region including heavy rainings since yesterday making the lives of the people abandoned their houses very difficult to survive.
Independent sources including IBC teams in Gaziantep(very close to the epicenter of the earthquake Kahramanmaraş just 40 km) Sanliurfa Kilis and Hatay reporting heavy casualties and damage. It is estimated fort he moment that the death toll reach to thousands and injured tens of thousands. The number of collapsed buildings are more that 4000 and the severely damaged more.
IBC-International Blue Crescent local teams are in the field Kilis. Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Sanlıurfa and assisting the local authorities for the emergency rescue of those under the collapsed building. Since the earthquake happened we do get thousands of calls from people to be rescued under ruins. Through social Media people are screaming through messages and asking urgently to be pulled out from the collapsed buildings.
State rescue teams are in a very poor response. Most of the rescue team members are in desperate position because they lost their family members or properties so we don't see any effective response from the state in the field.
What the Emergency Needs
IBC has offices in the cities of Gaziantep(Responding to Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş the epicenter of the disaster) in Hatay that severe damages are noticed in Kilis from where we can help North Syria response and Sanliurfa from where we have access to Diyarbakir and Malatya too.
Urgent needs are
-Tens of thousands tents
-Heaters for the tents
-Tens of thousands blankets
-Thermal clothes
-Ready to Eat Food for at least to 5000 people we have reach for a period of at least
-Basic first aid kits
IBC has mobilised all of his capacity in the region and an emergency response coordination center established in Gaziantep to coordinate all regional operations
For urgent information you can reach
Mr Muzaffer Baca
Vice President
+90 532 2344229
mbaca@ibc.org.tr
and
Alper Mavi
IBC Regional Programmes Coordinator in Gaziantep
+90 538 5159806
Alper.mavi@ibc.org.tr
IBC ll keep all partners and potential donors updated about the current situation and ll issue concrete appeals by Tuesday February 7th 2023
We ll be grateful to see our partners and international civil society helps us in these tragic days we are facing and overcome together the plight of our people suffering