Turkey-Syria earthquake - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

Turkish undertaker’s family move to cemetery as he buries earthquake dead

SUSANA VERA TASKED with burying hundreds of victims of Turkey's massive earthquakes, undertaker Ali Dogru brought his wife and four sons to live in an old bus by the cemetery where he works in the city of Iskenderun, so he could know they were safe. Last month's devastating earthquakes killed more than 54,000 people in Turkey and Syria and left millions homeless. Survivors are sheltering in tents, container homes, hotel resorts, university dormitories and even train carriages after hundreds of thousands of buildings collapsed and others were left unsafe. Shortly after the first earthquake struck on February 6, Ali, 46, moved his…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Turkey steps up rebuilding plans as quake toll nears 50,000

WORLD

HENRIETTE CHACAR and TIMOUR AZHARI TURKEY has stepped up plans to house victims of the devastating earthquake which struck its border region with Syria, the interior minister said, as the combined death toll in the two countries crept towards 50,000. Suleyman Soylu said 313,000 tents had been erected, with 100,000 container homes to be installed in the disaster zone which stretches for hundreds of kilometres inland from the Turkish and Syrian Mediterranean coast. The number of people killed in Turkey has risen to 43,556, Soylu said, while in Syria the death toll was close to 6,000. The United Nations said…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Six killed after latest earthquake shakes Turkey-Syria border

WORLD

ALI KUCUKGOCMEN and HENRIETTE CHACAR SIX people were killed in the latest earthquake to strike the border region of Turkey and Syria, authorities said, two weeks after a massive quake killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes. Monday's quake of magnitude 6.4, which hit just as the rescue work from the initial devastating earthquake was winding down, was centred near the Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. It was followed by 90 aftershocks, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said, adding fresh trauma to Antakya residents left…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Body of Ghana soccer player Atsu arrives home in Accra

NEWS

THE body of Ghana winger Christian Atsu was flown home to Accra evening, the day after he was found dead under a collapsed building in southern Turkey. Atsu had been missing since the February 6 earthquake following the collapse of an apartment building in Hatay. He was 31. FILE PHOTO: Newcastle United's Christian Atsu inside the stadium before the match on February 1, 2020. REUTERS/Scott Heppell Draped in Ghana's national flag, Atsu's coffin was received at the capital's Kotoko International Airport by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia and a large military honour guard. "We hoped against hope, every day that passed, we…

Feb

2023

By CLODAGH KILCOYNE and ALI KUCUKGOCMEN

Earthquake death toll passes 46,000; desperation for signs of life

WORLD

MORE than 46,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria and the toll is expected to soar, with some 345,000 apartments in Turkey now known to have been destroyed, and many still missing. As Turkey attempts to manage its worst modern disaster, concerns were growing over the victims of the tragedy in Syria, with the World Food Programme (WFP) pressuring authorities in the northwest to stop blocking access to the area as it seeks to help hundreds of thousands of people ravaged by earthquakes. Twelve days after the quake hit, workers from Kyrgyzstan tried to…

Feb

2023

By NIR ELIAS and ALI KUCUKGOCMEN

Rescuers pull two survivors from rubble in Turkey 11 days after earthquake

WORLD

RESCUE teams pulled two people alive from under collapsed buildings in Turkey on Friday, 11 days after an earthquake that has killed more than 43,000, left millions homeless and sparked a huge relief effort. Mosques around the world performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the enormity of the deadliest disaster in Turkey's modern history. While some international rescue teams have left the vast quake zone, survivors were still emerging from under a multitude of flattened homes, defying all the odds. In Turkey's historic city of…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Young girl rescued from rubble in Turkey 178 hours after quake

WORLD

A young girl named Miray was rescued from the rubble of an apartment block in the southern Turkish city of Adiyaman, 178 hours after a devastating earthquake shook the region, a minister and media reports said. Broadcaster CNN Turk said the girl was six years old and that rescuers were also close to reaching her older sister. Turkish Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoglu had earlier said she was four years old. Thomson Reuters Foundation

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Football star’s wife’s appeal

NEWS

Claire Rupio, partner of soccer player Christian Atsu who remains missing after two devastating earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, has called for equipment to be sent to the collapsed building where the Hatayspor winger was living. Atsu was reported to have been rescued from the rubble with injuries and transported to hospital after the quakes. However, Hatayspor director Volkan Demirel told Reuters on Wednesday the Ghanaian player was still missing. "The club was confirming that they had found him and that he was alive and had taken him to hospital, and 11 hours later my children had to hear…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Earthquake death toll tops 33,000, Turkey starts legal action

WORLD

ALI KUCUKGOCMEN and HENRIETTE CHACAR RESCUERS pulled more survivors from the rubble, nearly a week after one of the worst earthquakes to hit Turkey and Syria, as Turkish authorities sought to maintain order across the disaster zone and began legal action over building collapses. With chances of finding more survivors growing more remote, the toll in both countries from Monday's earthquake and major aftershocks rose above 33,000 and looked set to keep growing. It was the deadliest quake in Turkey since 1939. Displaced residents in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre, said they had set up tents as…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Rescuers toil on in rubble of Turkey and Syria, survivors ever harder to find

WORLD

MAYA GEBEILY, ALI KUCUKGOCMEN and KHALIL ASHAWI RESCUERS pulled some survivors from the rubble, five days after Turkey's most devastating earthquake since 1939 that also killed thousands of people in Syria, but hopes were fading for many more to be found. In Kahramanmaras, close to the epicentre in south Turkey, there were fewer visible rescue operations amid the smashed concrete mounds of fallen houses and apartment blocks where trucks rumbled through streets shipping out debris. The death toll kept growing - exceeding 25,300 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, facing questions over earthquake planning and response…