UNICEF: THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN MAY HAVE BEEN KILLED IN EARTHQUAKES

Tue 07 February 2023:

In Geneva, Unicef spokesperson James Elder has told reporters: “The earthquakes … may have killed thousands of children.”

While verified numbers were not yet available, Reuters reports he said “we know that scores of schools, hospitals and other medical and educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed by the quakes, vastly impacting children”.

Calling the quake the most powerful to hit the region in almost 100 years, Elder said Syrian refugees in northwest Syrian and in Turkey were among the most vulnerable.

The World Health Organisation had earlier warned that the total casualty figures could exceed 20,000. A quake of a similar magnitude in the region in 1999 killed at least 17,000 people.

WHO says earthquake could affect up to 23 million

Some 23 million people could be affected by the earthquake disaster, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

“Event overview maps show that potentially 23 million people are exposed, including around five million vulnerable populations,” said Adelheid Marschang, the WHO’s senior emergencies officer.

“Civilian infrastructure and potentially health infrastructure have been damaged across the affected region, mainly in Turkey and northwest Syria,” Marschang added.

The WHO “considers that the main unmet needs may be in Syria in the immediate and mid-term,” Marschang told the WHO’s executive committee in Geneva.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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