Earthquake in Syria & Turkey: 11.11.11 calls for strong action from federal government
Feb 06 2023
3 minutes
The death toll has risen to over 4.800 dead, while at least 20.000 people have been injured. The number of victims is likely to rise in the coming hours and days. Additional resources are urgently needed to deal with the crisis, according to local NGO rescue workers. 11.11.11 and local partner Basmeh & Zeitooneh are calling for swift and strong action.
This drama comes at a time when the humanitarian needs are already sky-high in the region. Turkey hosts the largest number of people on the run in the world, including 3.7 milion Syrians. In Syria itself, 15,3 million people were already dependent on humanitarian aid before the earthquakes. The situation in northwestern Syria was and is particularly precarious. Of the 4,6 milion residents in the area are 4,1 million Syrians dependent on humanitarian aid and at least 3,3 milion people are starving. In addition, the region is also affected by a cholera outbreak and severe winter storms, severely hampering relief efforts. Meanwhile, the United Nations’ humanitarian response remains dramatically underfunded. In 2022, for example, the United Nations received only 52% of the requested budgets for humanitarian aid in north-west Syria.
Local organizations, such as 11.11.11-partners Basmeh & Zeitooneh en olive branch, fortunately, are not sitting idle. Despite the fact that many colleagues of these organizations themselves ended up on the streets due to the earthquakes, relief efforts were immediately set up. Due to a lack of funding from international donors, they were forced to organize crowdfunding campaigns. For example, Basmeh & Zeitooneh raised more than 104.000 dollar to finance their rescue work on the ground.
11.11.11 welcomes the announcement, Monday afternoon, that the federal government has set up a team of BFAST-will send aid workers to Turkey. An important first step, but much more is needed. Specifically, we ask the federal government for the following:
- The federal government must immediately make an additional financial contribution to the Syria Cross Border Humanitarian Fund of the United Nations, which is responsible for humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria. The government must closely monitor that a significant portion of these resources goes to local aid organizations.
- Belgium must ask the United Nations to immediately release funds from the Central Emergency Response Fund. This is a humanitarian fund of the United Nations to limit the loss of human lives as much as possible in humanitarian disasters. Belgium is an important donor to this.
- The federal government must use the coming days, weeks and months expertise en toegang from local aid organizations in the affected areas.
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During the upcoming European Council (9-10 February) we ask the federal government to actively advocate for an ambitious European response to these dramatic events.
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