Giro 555 Turkey & Syria Earthquake - Turkey

More than 44,000 deaths have been reported in Türkiye as successive 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes, and more than 9,000 aftershocks, struck Southern Türkiye on February 6, 2023. On 8th February, the Government of Türkiye declared a three month-state of emergency for ten provinces in the Southeast (Kahramanmaras, Adıyaman, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Kilis, Diyarbakır, Osmaniye) and has called for international assistance. The earthquake affected the provinces where around 13.5 million people reside including around 2 million Syrian refugees. More than 25,000 buildings have either collapsed or are heavily damaged and at the time of writing AFAD assessment of buildings is still ongoing. This figure is set to increase significantly as new information becomes available. Humanitarian needs continue to grow and overwhelm response efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake. Hatay and Gaziantep (especially Islahiye district) are among the most impacted provinces while in Hatay public buildings including public hospitals and the airport have collapsed. NGOs on the ground observed there are significant number of homeless, people who do not have tents, sleep under tarpaulins, and burn fires for warmth and insulation from the cold (STL).