Death toll in Turkey earthquake rises above 45,000

The latest statement of AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) said that 45,089 people lost their lives while 1,15,000 people were injured in the Turkey earthquake, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. A devastating earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Southern Turkiye in the early hours of 6 February (4.17 a.m.), with its epicentre in the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province. The earthquake affected the neighbouring provinces of Adiyaman, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Elazig and Adana where about 14 million people reside including about 1,8 million Syrian refugees. A second major earthquake hit the region after 9 hours with 7.5 magnitudes causing further severe damage and destruction of damaged buildings. Aftershocks continue after the Kahramanmaras earthquakes. On 20 February, a 6.4 earthquake in Hatay, the epicentre of which was in Defne district, and a 5.6 magnitude earthquake centred in Malatya on 27 February also caused the collapse of many damaged buildings and added to the death toll. STL published its previous Situation Report on February 28. Below are listed a number of region-wide developments for the period of February 28 to March 3. According to the ‘2023 Earthquakes Displacement’ report prepared by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of 2.7 million people left the disaster area. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned of the urgent need for a sustainable short- and long-term response to health, mental health and psychosocial needs in Turkey and Syria to prevent a “second disaster”. The Minister of National Education of Turkiye announced that 202,817 students affected by the disaster were transferred to other cities. UNICEF announced that 2.5 million children are in need of urgent humanitarian aid in the disaster zone. The President of Turkiye annou