UN has failed Syrian earthquake victims, aid chief says

Martin Griffiths warns that the death toll is set to double as earthquake destruction 'beyond belief'

• 

  The brother of a survivor Gokhan Ugurlu, 35, who was pulled out of the rubble in Hatay, Turkey, reacts as a rescuer looks on. Reuters

• 

  A woman walks past flattened buildings in a street in Hatay province, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  A member of the army stands amid rubble in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  A man reacts while sitting outside a tent of a temporary accommodation centre set up on a football pitch in Gaziantep, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  Earthquake survivors walk on a street in Hatay, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  A White Helmets volunteer holds a rescued cat in the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

• 

  A Syrian boy, who lost his family in the deadly earthquake, stands amid the rubble of his family home in Jindayris. AFP

• 

  Rescuers sit by a bonfire in Hatay, Turkey. AFP

• 

  A Turkish soldier walks among destroyed buildings in Hatay. AFP

• 

  Relatives of Palestinian doctor Yusuf Darabeh, who died when the earthquake hit Turkey, comfort each other. AP Photo

• 

  People stand by a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. AP Photo

• 

  A child, injured in the earthquake, is treated at hospital in Bab Al Hawah, Syria. AP Photo

• 

  Vehicles containing aid from Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) on the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Syria border. Reuters

• 

  Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance after five days under the rubble in Antakya, Turkey. AP

• 

  Romanian firefighters load a Turkey-bound train with emergency aid near Bucharest. AP

• 

  Collapsed buildings in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

• 

  Abdulkerim Nano, 67, is rescued after five days under the rubble in in Kahramanmaras, Turkey

• 

  A Turkish rescue worker checks a collapsed building in Adiyaman. AP

• 

  Rescuers in Adiyaman, Turkey. AP

• 

  A resident in front of his collapsed building in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP

• 

  Syrian refugees shelter in a public market in the Islahiye district of Gaziantep, Turkey. AP

• 

  A family wait for the bodies of their relatives to be recovered in Antakya, Turkey. AP

• 

  A woman plays with a sniffer dog in Antakya, Turkey. AP

• 

  Collapsed buildings in Antakya, Turkey. AP

• 

  A Syrian woman takes care of her nephew Hasan Goayid, eight, in Islahiye district, Gaziantep. AP

• 

  A Syrian child in a tent in the Islahiye district. AP

• 

  Collapsed buildings in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP

• 

  Emirati rescuers sift through the rubble of a collapsed building in the regime-controlled town of Jableh, northwest of the Syrian capital. AFP

• 

  Volunteers at the Emirates Red Crescent 'Bridges of Goodness' campaign at the South Hall, Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City. Leslie Pableo for The National

• 

  Martin Griffiths, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, in Maras, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  Rescuers give water to a dog after a rescue operation in Hatay, southern Turkey. AP

• 

  A deadly earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6. EPA

• 

  Fissures from the earthquake have crumpled the highway near Islahiyeh in Southern Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National

• 

  A Kurdish charity's aid convoy enters Syria through the Bab Al Salama crossing with Turkey, in the northern province of Aleppo. AFP

• 

  A rescuer with a sniffer dog searches in a destroyed building in Antakya, southern Turkey. AFP

• 

  A makeshift camp erected in a stadium in the city of Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. EPA

• 

  A woman mourns Turkish Cypriot victims of the earthquake, during a funeral procession in the Turkish occupied area in north-east coastal city of Famagusta, Cyprus. AP

• 

  Rescuers carry survivor Rabia Ofkeli, 27, from the rubble in Hatay, southern Turkey. Reuters

• 

  Syrian President Bashar Al Assad visits Aleppo university hospital. Reuters

• 

  Members of the Swiss rescue team with a four-month-old girl, Abir, who was pulled out from the rubble in Antakya. AFP

• 

  Survivors at a hospital in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  Members of the White Helmets during the fifth day of rescue operations in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

• 

  Indonesian Muslims perform a prayer for the victims at Istiqlal grand mosque in Jakarta. EPA

• 

  Emergency personnel conduct a rescue operation to save Melda, 16, from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey. AFP

• 

  The earthquake caused a railbed overpass to collapse in Nurdagi, Turkey. AFP

• 

  A framed picture on the cracked wall of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, south-eastern Turkey. EPA

• 

  A coastal area of Iskenderun, Turkey, was flooded after the quake. Reuters

• 

  A sheet of paper lies among the rubble in Elbistan. AP

• 

  Relief supplies destined for earthquake survivors in Turkey, at a warehouse in Schoenefeld, near Berlin, Germany. AP

• 

  Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, three days after the earthquake struck. AFP

• 

  Rescuers with a child pulled out from under the rubble. Reuters

• 

  Rescuers rest on top of rubble as an aircraft drops water over a fire at the port in the quake-stricken town of Iskenderun. Reuters

• 

  A rescue worker in Kahramanmaras, three days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck south-east Turkey. AFP

• 

  People try to pull out a dog trapped beneath the rubble in Iskenderun, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  Lorries carrying humanitarian aid wait at Bab Al Hawa crossing on the Turkey-Syria border. Reuters

• 

  Syrians warm up by a fire outside a makeshift tent near the rebel-held town of Jindayris in Syria. AFP

• 

  A dam on the Orontes river in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province collapsed after the quake, flooding the neighbourhood. AFP

• 

  The sails of the Sydney Opera House lit with a black ribbon in remembrance and mourning of the earthquake victims. Getty

• 

  Smoke billows amid an expanse of collapsed and damaged buildings in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  Dogs of the German International Search and Rescue team rest between operations in Kirikhan, Turkey. Reuters

• 

  White Helmets volunteers rescue a child trapped beneath the rubble in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

• 

  People gather to collect food and humanitarian aid in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, south-east Turkey. EPA

• 

  The statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, is surrounded by damaged buildings in Adiyaman province. AP

• 

  A plane carrying humanitarian air sent for earthquake survivors lands in Damascus. Mahmoud Rida / The National

• 

  Motorway fractured by earthquake causes car crash near Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National

• 

  A tent camp has been set up at a stadium in south-eastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras to shelter families whose homes were destroyed in the quake. AFP

• 

  A displaced Syrian woman rests under a tree in a field on the outskirts of the rebel-held town of Jindayris. AFP

Follow the latest news on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

The UN has failed the people of north-western Syria nearly a week after a powerful earthquake hit the region and killed more than 28,000 people, a toll that is feared to rise by tens of thousands, a top aid chief said on Sunday.

Martin Griffiths, the UN's Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, described “devastating” scenes he had witnessed in Turkey as he visited the quake-hit areas.

“At the Turkey-Syria border today. We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria,” Mr Griffiths said on Twitter.

“They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,” he said.

Mr Griffiths said his main focus and duty now is to “correct this failure as fast as we can.” He added that it is typical in a natural disaster that water supplies get “tainted” and spread disease, warning of a second wave of cholera in Syria.

He described the earthquake as the region's worst event in 100 years, predicting the death toll would at least double.

He praised Turkey's response, saying his experience was that disaster victims were always disappointed by early relief efforts.

Tens of thousands of rescue workers continued to scour flattened neighbourhoods in freezing weather that has deepened the misery of millions now in desperate need of aid. In Turkey alone, about 13 million people live in a zone of massive devastation, around 500km in diameter.

International aid continued to pour into Turkey on Sunday, with around 100 countries sending aid and rescue workers to the region. From the region, Saudi Arabia and Qatar joined Egypt and Jordan in sending aid to stricken areas of northern Syria, while Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed arrived in Damascus on Sunday to discuss ways the UAE could increase its assistance to Syria, where as many as five million people are feared homeless following the disaster.

In Turkey, security concerns led some aid operations to be suspended, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims after the quake, according to state media. Turkish authorities said on Sunday that 130 people in the construction and real estate sector had arrested warrants issued against them after being accused of violating building standards. The standards have been in place for nearly two decades but are seldom enforced.

Some people are miraculously still being rescued, almost a week after the disaster, as incredible stories of survival continue to emerge.

Three Emiratis survived the quake in Turkey after they were trapped inside their hotel as the walls crumbled.

Mohammed Al Hrmoodi 26, Majed Abdulrhman, 24 and Ahmed Al Yassi, 26, were asleep in the Northhill Hotel in Antakya when last Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake struck. They woke to find the building swaying and the deafening noise of cracking concrete and windows, but were able to escape unharmed.

Aid getting to Syria

The situation in the areas devastated by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria is “bleak beyond belief”, Britain's Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said on Sunday.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Mitchell said: “It’s bleak beyond belief, it is the worst crisis, the worst earthquake we have faced certainly since Nepal [2015], probably since Haiti [2010].”

He suggested the death toll could reach 50,000, backing Mr Griffiths assessment that it could dramatically increase.

“I think that the figure that the UN emergency co-ordinator has given yesterday when he was in the region of 50,000 is the right figure, I fear, that we’re going to see.”

Mr Mitchell said there is “good organisation” of the relief effort in Turkey, but in the “ungoverned space” of war-torn Syria the situation is more difficult.

The EU's envoy to Syria on Sunday urged authorities in Damascus to “engage in good faith” with aid workers to get help to those in need.

“It is important to allow unimpeded access for aid to arrive in all areas where it is needed,” Dan Stoenescu told Reuters.

“Entering a fake blame game is not constructive and does not help us deliver aid to those in so much need and distress in a more timely manner. On the contrary,” he said.

A Qatari Red Cross medical team crossed into Syria on Sunday — the second aid shipment from Arab governments to rebel-held areas — to the northern region in the country worst hit by the 7.8-magnitude quake, residents and aid workers said.

They said that while any aid is welcome, despite it being too late to rescue anyone under the rubble, there remains a huge shortage of tents and other supporting material for those without shelter.

The 12-member team, which left Doha to Turkey on Sunday, passed through the Bab Al Hawa crossing, a border gate between the Turkish province of Hatay and the governorate of Idlib.

A Qatari Red Crescent statement said the team will be treating people upon its arrival, and that another team accompanying shipments of medicine and medical equipment will follow.

The Qatari aid came a day after the first Arab government aid arrived from Saudi Arabia via the Al Hammam crossing, 5km west of the rebel-controlled city of Jindiris.

The earthquake brought down 267 buildings in the small city, the most in any town in rebel-held areas, according of the Stabilisation Support Unit, a pro-opposition aid co-ordination organisation.

Syrian expatriates have been also sending aid and volunteer Syrian doctors have been crossing into rebel-controlled areas.

A Saudi philanthropist known as Abu Turki paid for 20 containers of wood, which was sent to towns and villages most affected by the quake.

Messages on a WhatsApp group of aid workers in non-regime-held areas said that most of the aid that has come in so far through Turkey has consisted of blankets, clothes and canned food.

“Nothing has arrived into the liberated areas to shelter people,” said Sirin, one of the aid workers. “The number of tents we have is very limited.”

With extra reporting from Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Jordan