Death toll from Turkey-Syria earthquake passes 25,000. At least 870,000 people urgently needed food in the two countries after the quake, which has made up to 5.3 million people homeless in Syria alone, the UN warned.
Efforts to ramp up rescue ops deepend as teams from Indonesia and Cuba also joined hands with other nations. United Nations also said it is “ramping up” efforts to provide assistance to the castastrophe hit nation. It should be noted that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has already deployed a disaster assistance and response team to Turkey.
Search and rescue teams from Indonesia have departed for Turkey to assist with the international aid effort.
Two military aircraft with more than 50 staff and 24 tonnes of aid were dispatched from the Halim Perdanakusuma air force base in Jakarta on Saturday.
“Our task in this first batch is attached to the SAR (search and rescue) Team or the Response Agency in Turkey, this team will get SAR assignments around the Hatay area to search for victims in collapsed buildings,” Bambang Suryaputra, an official with Indonesia’s National Board of Disaster Management, said before departure.
The White Helmets in Syria announced the end of its search and rescue operations for survivors in rebel-controlled areas in the north and northwest.