Mon 13 February 2023:
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says he has offered to open two border crossings with Syria for the international community to send humanitarian aid to the quake-hit northern parts of Turkey’s neighbour.
“We told the international community and the UN that they could send humanitarian aid through the two gates under our control,” Cavusoglu said during a joint news conference with his Libyan counterpart, Najla al-Mangoush, in Ankara.
The diplomat referred to two border gates in Kilis province.
“It is out of the question for Türkiye to open border crossings in places [in Syria] controlled by the PKK and YPG,” he said, referring to two Kurdish groups that Ankara labels as “terrorists”.
UNHCR calls for ‘much more support’ to provide aid in Syria
Kelly Clements, deputy high commissioner of the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), says the earthquake has caused “complete devastation” in parts of Syria.
“In some places, it just looks like the earthquake took a knife through the middle of a building and knocked out half of it,” she told Al Jazeera from Aleppo.
“There’s rubble on the streets. There are people, families and children that are in parks. There are tents in multiple locations and it’s cold, really cold,” Clements added.
“Shelter remains the largest single need right at the moment for the many people that are displaced, but there is also large deep trauma now with families who have experienced year after year of crisis here.”
Clements said UNHCR was “seriously underfunded”, warning that the agency would need “much more support to be able to get to places like Aleppo and other parts of this country, given the large number of people that are displaced are in the northwest”.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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