Two and a half weeks after the earthquake disaster in the Turkish-Syrian border region, the death toll has risen to more than 50,000. In Turkey alone, there were 44,218 victims, the Turkish disaster authority Afad reported on Friday evening. From Syria, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 5900 deaths. The activists of the Syrian Observatory even assumed more than 6700 dead in the evening. Hundreds of seriously injured people are therefore still in mortal danger.

Aftershocks are still shaking the region and causing panic. According to the Turkish government, 20 million people in the country are affected by the effects of the quake. For Syria, the United Nations estimates that 8.8 million people will be affected.

Salvage work continues

The earthquake areas were initially partly difficult to access. However, salvage work continues, as it progresses, the number of victims increases. There have been no reports of rescuing survivors in recent days.

The series of earthquakes began on 6 February, when two quakes of magnitude 7.7 and a little later magnitude 7.6 shook southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. According to Turkish data, this was followed by more than 9000,<> aftershocks.

According to the United Nations, the earthquake disaster was the worst in Turkish history, not only in terms of fatalities. The mountains of rubble and rubble are also unprecedented, said Louisa Vinton, the representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Turkey. According to the Turkish government, more than 173,000 buildings have been registered as collapsed or severely damaged. According to Afad, almost two million people were accommodated in tents and other emergency shelters.

Only sparse information from Syria

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, there are 100,000 homeless people in Syria after the earthquakes. In more than 123 places in the country, houses are damaged or completely destroyed. Many power plants, power lines, schools and hospitals were also affected.

The Turkish Chamber of Architects TMMOB blames the government for the extent of the disaster. Because it had subsequently legalized thousands of unauthorized buildings, the leadership in Ankara had put the lives of many people at risk. Nearly half of the buildings in the earthquake-stricken region were built after 2001, according to the TMMOB – a time when strict building regulations for earthquake safety were already in place. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and government officials had rejected such criticism.

In Turkey, eleven provinces are affected by the earthquake, in Syria the northwest. From the civil war country, there is only sparse information about the situation. In the face of years of bombardment and fighting, many people there were already living under precarious conditions before the quakes.