According to the government, more than 600 children in the Turkish part of the region are still unaccompanied after the devastating earthquakes in the Turkish-Syrian border area. 953 children who were previously also unaccompanied have now been reunited with their families, the Turkish Presidential Office said. According to the information, information about the identities of 247 children is still missing.
The federal government has meanwhile promised the victims of the severe earthquake in Syria further aid in the millions. “Even if the Assad regime is putting one stone after the other in the way of the aid organizations: we will not leave the people there alone,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) told the “Bild am Sonntag”.
It is about mothers, children and grandparents who have been experiencing war for more than ten years, sometimes had to flee several times and are now mourning their loved ones under the rubble. “They now lack even the bare necessities to survive: a roof over their heads, clean drinking water, something to eat and medicine. That is why we are once again increasing our aid for the region by over 22 million euros.”
Almost two weeks ago, a severe earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 shook southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, hours later followed by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6. The number of confirmed dead in Turkey and Syria is more than 45,000. Tens of thousands were also injured and thousands are still missing. Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured the earthquake victims of Germany’s solidarity on Saturday. German relief workers were deployed in the region, and the Luftwaffe undertook relief flights.
Another 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck south-east Turkey on Saturday evening. The quake was registered at around 10:31 p.m. local time (20:31 CET) in the municipality of Göksun, the Kandilli earthquake station said in the evening via the short message service Twitter. The USGS put the magnitude of the quake at 5.0. The state news agency Anadolu reported a magnitude of 5.1, citing information from the civil protection agency Afad.
The municipality of Göksun is located in the province of Kahramanmaras, which was hit by the earthquake disaster in the Syrian-Turkish border area. It was initially not known whether the quake on Saturday evening caused damage or whether people were injured.
