The devastating earthquake that occurred during the early hours of
February 6 caused the earth to shake in Turkey and Syria with violencebarely seen in the last century. According to the United States
Geological Survey, the earthquake has reached a magnitude of 7.8 on the
Richter scale, reducing thousands of buildings to rubble, devastating
entire cities and leaving almost 50,000 dead. This catastrophe has put
the fragility of northwest Syria in the spotlight, plagued by a
forgotten war that is going on for twelve years. The disaster has opened
a new dark chapter in a scenario that, despite the emergency, remains on
the margins of international aid.
In Syria, a country punished by more than 12 years of war, the number of
victims is around 5,750. The Ministry of Health has reported 2,300
deaths and more than 2,000 injuries; while in the northwest area, the
dead are 3,450, according to the White Helmets (the Syrian Civil
Defense), with more than 7,000 injured. The situation was very difficult
due to the lack of modern equipment to help rescue the victims and
injured. «There was a child of a few years under the rubble, the rescue
teams had not been able to remove him for hours. It was the most
difficult moment for me in this disaster," says Ahmad, a civil defense
volunteer in northwestern Syria.
Before the disaster, around 14.6 million Syrians needed help, according
to United Nations statistics. Almost three million displaced people live
in the northwest of the country, the area most affected by the
earthquake. In addition to the spread of epidemics and diseases,
especially chlorosis, which has been plaguing the region for some time,
with 51,000 suspected cases of this dangerous infectious disease.
Where is help reaching?
Countries allied to the Syrian regime are sending aid to the airports of
Damascus and Aleppo. The official news agency, Sana, announces that Iraq
has sent an aid convoy across the border in the east, as well as the
United Arab Emirates, Libya, Tunisia, Armenia and Pakistan.
In the affected region in northwestern Syria there are no ports and
planes cannot land, as airports have been out of service since the
outbreak of war. The only entry point for aid is the Bab Al Hawa border
crossing with Turkey, the rest of the crossings are closed. Türkiye
agreed to open other crossings for the entry of aid, according to
opposition sources. A UN spokesman said the flow of aid from Turkey to
the northwest was disrupted by damaged roads and other logistical problems.
The White Helmets, the only organization that carried out rescue
operations in this territory, worked from the first moment and without
interruption, and all their teams are on high alert. Hundreds of bodies
have been pulled from under the rubble. "We couldn't respond to
everyone, we heard the voices of civilians, and we couldn't respond
fully because of the lack of equipment," says Mounir Al-Mustafa, deputy
director of the White Helmets.
Poor weather conditions, earthquake aftershocks and lack of equipment
add to the difficulty and complexity of rescue operations. There are
more than 700 buildings partially or completely destroyed. Tens of
thousands of people have no shelter and are on the streets in sub-zero
temperatures. "Many children and women were out in the open," says
Al-Mustafa.
The tragedies of the Syrians in Türkiye
Thousands of Syrians, who found refuge in Turkish territory after
fleeing the war in search of a better life, found death as a result of
the earthquake, as the Turkish Interior Minister said in a statement on
March 4. The number of Syrian victims who died in Turkish territory
reached 4,267.
«From the first moments of the earthquake - explains the Syrian
journalist Jihanen in the magazine Baynana -, with all the destruction
and death that there was, and during the following days that we were
working searching for the bodies of my relatives under the rubble, I
pretended to be same question: why does the earth kill us? We are the
Syrians who were fleeing the death that comes from heaven. "We are the
ones who crossed the borders and crossed the forests, fleeing towards
Turkey from the death that came from the planes of the Syrian regime and
Russia, fleeing from the explosive barrels that throw us from the sky."
«It is difficult for those of us who survive now to find a place to
live. We are those who have been called by many names, sometimes
displaced, sometimes refugees, sometimes fugitives and fugitives. But I
can't find any name among them that suits me. I chose for myself a name
that I find the best and most expressive: homeless. Yes, no home, no
family, no friends, not even a tent.
It is an excerpt from one of the twenty articles that Baynana magazine
prepared to rescue the stories of Syrian journalists and help them
internationally through a fundraising campaign that it launched on its
website, but it was not successful. Currently, the magazine is going
through an economic crisis and does not have the capacity to finance
these informative pieces. This campaign was only able to finance two of
them.
The voice of the Syrians themselves
Although Syria began to make headlines 12 years ago, the country has
once again become an information black hole. This problem is exacerbated
by the devastating earthquake of February 6. Baynana, the first digital
magazine founded in Spain by Syrian refugee journalists, launched the
patronage project 'Support the voices of Syria: the consequences of the
earthquake through its journalists', where Syrian journalists would be
the ones to convey from the field the information about the consequences
of the earthquake, without intermediaries.
Over the past twelve years, coverage of Syria has been losing space in
the mainstream media. As the conflict lengthened and its reality became
complex, Syrians lost interest in information. The same thing happened
with the earthquake. We are missing a perspective from within. We want
to support local journalists because they know the historical-cultural
context, the language, the internal dynamics of the country and have
their own mechanisms to contrast information.
We are those who have been called by many names, sometimes displaced,
sometimes refugees, sometimes fugitives and fugitives. But I can't find
any name among them that suits me. I chose for myself a name that I find
the best and most expressive: homeless. Yes, no home, no family, no
friends, not even a tent
Exhausted by years of conflict and poverty, Syrians are worse off than
at any time since the conflict began in 2011. 90% of the population now
lives below the poverty line, up from 80% a year ago , with two million
people living in extreme poverty, according to data from the Spanish
Agency for International Development Cooperation. With your help, the
paid work of local journalists will contribute to the socioeconomic
activity of the area of the country most devastated by the earthquake.
Criticism of the United Nations response
Activists placed the United Nations flag upside down on buildings
destroyed by the earthquake in northwestern Syria on Saturday,
denouncing the abandonment of those trapped under the rubble without
receiving assistance. The director of The White Helmets, Raed Al Saleh,
has criticized the United Nations for the delay in the arrival of aid to
this region and has asked to open an investigation to find out the
reasons for this failure on the part of the international community. Al
Saleh: "We were racing against time to rescue those trapped under the
rubble, but lack of equipment was one of the main reasons why we were
unable to rescue many."
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Martin Griffiths has admitted that the United Nations has failed the
Syrians in north-west Syria: "We have failed the people of north-west
Syria, they are right to feel abandoned", he has indicated that his duty
and obligation is to correct this failure as soon as possible, "this is
my focus now."
A reconstruction that is difficult to face, since Syria faces an
economic crisis as a result of the war that has been waged in the
country for 12 years, as stated by the United Nations World Food
Program: "Hunger and Malnutrition in Syria is increasing sharply, with
around 55% of the Syrian population suffering from food insecurity and
some three million more are at risk. The future of Syria is increasingly
bleak and gloomy.
https://www.cnt.es/noticias/que-paso-con-el-terremoto-en-siria-que-hizo-el-mundo/
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