Damascus, Europe Brief News – More than five million Syrians may be homeless after Turkey-Syria quake.
“As many as 5.3 million people in Syria may have been left homeless by the earthquake,” Sivanka Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
“That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement.”
“For Syria, this is a crisis within a crisis,” he added, “We’ve had economic shocks, COVID and are now in the depths of winter, with blizzards raging in the affected areas.”
Survivors of the magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 quakes have flocked to camps set up for people displaced by nearly 12 years of war from other parts of Syria. Many lost their homes or are too scared to return to damaged buildings.
More than 3,300 Syrians have already died across Syria because of the quake.
Dhanapala said the UNHCR has been “rushing aid” to the badly affected parts of Syria, but “it’s been very, very difficult”.
“There are 6.8 million people already internally displaced in the country. And this was before the earthquake.”
Meanwhile, a second UN aid convoy of 14 trucks has crossed into rebel-held areas of Syria – after an initial six vehicles went in on Thursday.
Currently, the UN only has one approved crossing between the two countries – Bab al-Hawa. The UN said on Thursday its first convoy had crossed into Syria on Thursday, after being delayed by damage.
Turkish government has said it has authorised aid to go through two additional crossings, but UN officials have said Bab al-Hawa remained the only viable route.
