INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Another earthquake struck the border region of Turkey and Syria on Monday, just two weeks after the area was devastated by a larger quake
that killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, Reuters reported. Monday&s quake, this time
with a magnitude of 6.4, was centred near the southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. It struck at a
depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said. Hatay Mayor Lutfu Savas told HaberTurk broadcaster
that he had received reports about some people stuck under rubble after the latest quake
Three people were killed and more than 200 injured, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said. In Samandag, where the country&s Disaster and
Emergency Management Authority AFAD reported one person dead, residents said more buildings collapsed but most of the town had already fled
after the initial earthquakes
Mounds of debris and discarded furniture lined the dark, abandoned streets, read the report. Muna Al Omar said she was in a tent in a park
in central Antakya when the ground started heaving again. &I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,& she said, crying as
she held her 7-year-old son in her arms. Hours earlier, U.S
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Turkey that Washington would help &for as long as it takes& as rescue operations in the
6 earthquake and its aftershocks were winding down, and focus turned to toward urgent shelter and reconstruction work. The death toll from
the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Turkey, AFAD said on Monday, and it was expected to climb further, with 385,000 apartments known
to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing, Reuters reported. President Tayyip Erdogan said construction
work on nearly 200,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would begin next month. Total US humanitarian assistance to
support the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria has reached $185 million, the US State Department said. Among the survivors of the
earthquakes are about 356,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to health services, the U.N
sexual and reproductive health agency has said. They include 226,000 women in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria, about 38,800 of whom will
deliver in the next month
Many of them were sheltering in camps or exposed to freezing temperatures and struggling to get food or clean water, Reuters
reported. SYRIA AID In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, most deaths have been in the northwest, where the
United Nations said 4,525 people were killed
The area is controlled by insurgents at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, complicating aid efforts. Syrian officials say
1,414 people were killed in areas under the control of Assad&s government. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said a convoy of
14 of its trucks had entered northwestern Syria from Turkey on Sunday to assist in rescue operations. The World Food Programme has also
been pressuring authorities in that region to stop blocking access for aid from Syrian government-controlled areas. As of Monday morning,
197 trucks loaded with U.N
humanitarian aid had entered northwest Syria through two border crossings, a spokesperson for the U.N
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey have returned to their homes in northwest
Syria to get in touch with relatives affected by the devastation, read the report. At the Turkish Cilvegozu border crossing, hundreds of
Syrians lined up starting early on Monday to cross. Mustafa Hannan, who dropped off his pregnant wife and 3-year-old son, said he saw about
350 people waiting. The 27-year-old car electrician said his family was leaving for a few months after their home in Antakya collapsed,
taking up a pledge by authorities allowing them to spend up to six months in Syria without losing the chance to return to Turkey. &I&m
worried they won&t be allowed back,& he said
&We&ve already been separated from our nation
Are we going to be separated from our families now too? If I rebuild here but they can&t return, my life will be lost.&The post Fresh
earthquake hits Turkey-Syria border two weeks after disaster first appeared on Ariana News.
