Türkiye: Humanity First – Situation Update 05, 04 March 2023 – Türkiye
Situation
On Monday 6th February 2023, southeast Türkiye was hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake at 04:17 local time, the most powerful to strike the country since 1939. The epicentre was near Ataler in Gaziantep Province. As authorities were responding, a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck just hours later at 13:30 local time with an epicentre at Ekinozu in the same region. These two earthquakes alone resulted in over 7,000 aftershocks.
Another 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck in Antakya on 20 February at around 21:30.
At this stage, the total number of confirmed fatalities is believed to be over 51,000 including 45,089 in Turkiye, with many more still missing and the number of injuries is estimated to be 120,000. It is estimated that over 13 million people have been affected by the earthquakes.
Whilst the Turkish Government works on reconstruction (estimated 160,000 buildings destroyed or badly damaged), a large number of displaced families are in well managed tent camps in the region. The latest AFAD update mentioned that almost 2 million people on the Turkish side have been accommodated in mid-term shelter in 332 locations across 11 provinces.
