Attachments
1. Situation overview:
A devastating earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Southern Turkey in the early hours of 6 February (4.17 a.m.), with epicentre in the Pazarcık district of Kahramanmaras province. The earthquake affected the neighbouring provinces of Adıyaman, Kilis, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Malatya, as well as Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana and Hatay, where around 13.5 million people reside including around 2 million Syrian refugees.
According to WHO, the affected regions in Turkey and Syria are home to around 23 million people including 1.4 million children. Many aftershocks followed the earthquake and a second major earthquake hit the region after 9 hours with 7.5 magnitude causing serious further damage and destruction of damaged buildings.
According to the latest official statements from Turkiye, 3,381 people lost their lives and 20,426 people are injured. There are 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 have been confirmed. In Syria, already wrecked by more than 11 years of war, it is reported that more than 812 people have been killed and 1,449 injured. The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers and residents have been searching frantically for survivors under the rubble of crushed buildings. Due to risk of further damage as a result of aftershocks, people are not able to go into their houses, therefore staying outdoors in the cold and rainy weather.
Hatay is one of the most severely affected provinces in Turkiye according to the latest updates, with multiple major buildings collapsed including Antakya and İskenderun public hospitals, AFAD premises (Directorate of Disaster and Emergency Management Agency) and Gendarmery Headquarters. The airport runway is damaged, causing problems for airplanes to land. Rescue teams have been unable to reach the city centre where many people are under the rubble. Earthquake response is very limited in Hatay, where people are in urgent need of life saving assistance.
Support to Life (STL) has been operational in the affected provinces of Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana and Hatay provinces since 2013, providing protection and livelihood support to refugees and host community members. Being provinces heavily populated by Syrian refugees, STL has been running community centres in these provinces, including one in the Narlıca neighbourhood of the Antakya district of Hatay. STL is currently assessing the impact of the earthquake on its staff and the affected population.