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UN appeals for $1 billion to help Turkey quake survivors

Published:Thursday | February 16, 2023 | 9:36 PM
Volunteers set up tents for Families who lost their homes in a devastating earthquake to provide them shelter and food near destroyed buildings in the town of Harem, Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, February 11, 2023. After years of war, residents of areas in northwest Syria struck by a massive earthquake are grappling with their new and worsening reality. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations launched a $1 billion appeal Thursday to help 5.2 million survivors of the most devastating earthquake in Turkey's modern history, two days after starting a $397 million appeal to help nearly five million Syrians across the border in the rebel-held northwest.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric was peppered with questions about why the appeal for Turkey is targeted at only 5.2 million people when according to the UN and the government more than 15 million people were affected.

He also was asked why the appeal for Turkey is 2½ times larger than the one for Syria to help almost the same number of people.

He said the Turkish appeal “was designed in very close cooperation with the government of Turkey, which is leading the relief efforts.”

“This is the number they came up with for the focus on people who need the most humanitarian aid, most quickly, and where the UN can be most effective,” Dujarric said.

He said Turkey has “a very efficient search and rescue and humanitarian system.”

As for the disparity in the amount of the appeals, he said, part of the reason is that “there is already a well-established humanitarian community which has been working in Syria,” and before the quake there was a $4.8 billion humanitarian appeal for Syria for 2023.

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