United Nations: A month after the two catastrophic earthquakes that struck Turkiye and Syria, more than 850,000 children remain displaced after being forced from their damaged or destroyed homes amid millions in dire need of aid, UN agencies said.
Families forced from their homes by the earthquakes had spent the past four weeks focused on survival, their lives on hold while aftershocks continue to rumble, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Afshan Khan, said in a statement.
She said it was now critical to do all we could to help families begin to rebuild their lives, providing children with psychosocial support, getting them back into learning as soon as possible, and providing some stability amid the chaos.
At the same time, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) reported on Monday that the situation for the 356,000 pregnant women in earthquake-affected areas remained critical, especially the estimated 38,800 who were expected to deliver in the coming weeks.
Hundreds of hospitals and clinics were either damaged or destroyed, and thousands of women and girls were living in over-crowded, makeshift camps exposed to freezing temperatures, UNFPA said, adding that urgent funding was key to keeping thousands healthy during their pregnancy.
UNICEF said the impact of the earthquakes on the region’s children and families had been catastrophic, leaving hundreds of thousands living in desperate conditions.
The combined death toll from the earthquakes and aftershocks has reached more than 50,000 people in both countries, with thousands of others injured and massive destruction to buildings and other essential infrastructure.
The number of children killed and injured during the quakes and their aftermath had not yet been confirmed, but was likely to be in the many thousands, UNICEF said. Across Syria, more than 3.7 million children have been affected by the quakes.
Even before these catastrophic earthquakes, humanitarian needs among children of Syria were higher than they had ever been, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr, said.
“As we approach 12 long years of conflict, millions of families are living on the brink of disaster, feeling as if the world had forgotten them. We must support these families for the long term, helping them pick up the pieces of their lives”, Adele said.
In Syria, more than 500,000 people are believed to have been forced from their homes by the earthquakes. Many families’ homes have been destroyed and many children are afraid to return to damaged homes as aftershocks continue.
Even before the earthquakes, Syria had the largest number of internally displaced people in the world, with 6.8 million people displaced, including nearly three million children.
In Turkiye, over 1.9 million people are staying in temporary accommodation shelters, and 2.5 million children in the country require urgent humanitarian assistance. APP
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