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Turkey-Syria 2023 Earthquake

2 min read
A man yelling and crying whilst carrying a mangled body with a group of other men through a pile of rubble devastated by the earthquake.

Men carrying a body out of a building brought to rubble by the earthquake.

On Monday the 6th of February 2023, at approximately 4.17 am local Turkey time; a powerful earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck the central and southern parts of Turkey along with the western side of Syria. This quake brought buildings down to rubble and terror through the hearts of the people. Shortly after, another powerful aftershock of approximately 7.5 magnitude hit these areas again. Some confused this after shock with a second earthquake as it’s power was so intense.

Turkey initially estimated the death toll to be around two thousand whilst Syria had already recorded over a thousand deaths by the next day. As of now, the world health organization believes that the death toll could be as high as 20,000 with many thousands of injuried.

There is currently utter devastation on the ground with people having lost homes and their worldy possessions. However, what is worse is that they have lost their family and friends.

Many countries around the world were shocked to hear the news about these earthquakes with some even claiming to have felt the after shocks. The United States and many other countries are offerring the Turkish and Syrian people aid and specialist personnel to help find any survivors within the depths of the rubble left by the Earthquake.

The Syrian people are used to devastation and grief as some were living in refugee camps when the earthquake hit. A people that have been facing hard times have only more hard times a head of them.

What is clear that both countries and it’s people are in desperate need of the essentials and a lot of aid.

To re-build any nation after such natural disasters costs many billions if not trillions of dollars. The devastation has crumbled critical infrastructure, and brought the overall economy into ruins leaving thousands of people out of work.

Humanitarian aid in Syria prior to the earthquake was hit by numerous sanctions making the lives of the Syrian people even more difficult. It is currently unclear whether these sanctions will be lifted following this earthquake. Although, what is clear is that the Syrian people have been devastasted by not only this earthquake but by the numerous wars fought on their land.

As the death toll currently rises and the number of injuried increases what is important is that we open our hearts and try to support these vunerable people as best we can. Strident News has opened a Turkey-Syria Earthquake Campaign to help the efforts in the respected regions.