We will now be closing the blog. Here is a summary of events so far.
The death toll from the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to more than 33,000 on Sunday, with the United Nations warning that the final number may double. Officials and medics said 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria bringing the confirmed total to 33,179, Agence France-Presse reports.
The UN’s emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said “we have failed the people in north-west Syria” and they “rightly feel abandoned”. His Twitter post continued the people of Syria were: “Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived. My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can. That’s my focus now.”
Turkish authorities have issued more than 100 arrest warrants over collapsed buildings. State media reported that at least 12 people were in custody, including contractors, architects and engineers connected to some of the tens of thousands of buildings destroyed or seriously damaged in Monday’s 7.8- and 7.6-magnitude quakes.
British donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal have topped £60 million in just three days. The total amount so far of £60.3 million includes £5 million in UK Aid Match from the UK government.
There have been extraordinary rescue stories to emerge from Turkey, including a 10-year-old girl who was pulled from a collapsed building in the south-eastern Turkish province of Hatay, after 147 hours, according to rescuers. Meanwhile, the health minister of Turkey, Dr Fahrettin Koca, tweeted a short clip of a young girl that he said had been pulled from the rubble “in the 150th hour” in Hatay, Turkey.
The UK’s development minister, Andrew Mitchell, has said the situation following the earthquake is “bleak beyond belief”. On the subject of the UK’s aid to Syria, which was halved from around £180m in 2020 to £90m in 2021, Mitchell defended the cut, adding that the aid budget will increase once the economy improves.
The German government wants to temporarily ease visa restrictions for survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria who have close family ties to Germany if they are facing homelessness or were injured.
Randa Ghazy, the MiddleEast regional media manager at Save the Children, told the BBC in the long term there would be a “second disaster” as the rescued struggle to survive.
Oubadah Alwan, a spokesperson for the Syria Civil Defence, a volunteer group also known as the White Helmets, told the BBC the situation in Syria was “very difficult” and the catastrophe the country now faces could have “definitely been avoided if we had some help earlier on”.
Humanitarian groups working in southern Turkey and north-west Syria warn that Monday’s earthquake will have a “long tail” – a wide range of needs that will require donations for months, or even years, after the rescue and recovery missions end, the Associated Press reports.
Greece’s foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, offered his condolences to the people of Turkey when he visited the country on Sunday. His arrival marks the first visit by a European minister since the earthquake.
China shipped 53 tonnes of tents to aid earthquake-hit Turkey on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Updated
Humanitarian groups working in southern Turkey and north-west Syria warn that Monday’s earthquake will have a “long tail” — a wide range of needs that will require donations for months, or even years, after the rescue and recovery missions end, the Associated Press reports.
Avril Benoît, executive director for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) USA said: “There’s a long tail to an emergency like this, both for the injured from the earthquake, but also for chronic disease management, making sure they have access to their medications.”
People will die without access to medications to control chronic illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes, she said, adding that the earthquake will also take a mental toll.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said they had 5,200 volunteers mobilised on both sides of the border, with the Turkish operation being more robust and better-equipped because of its longstanding programme to support Syrian refugees.
The IFRC is already planning its recovery efforts over 12 months, with recurring assessments to define the scope.
Trauma response and sanitation issues are among the top priorities.
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