Medical personnel and rescue workers have been stretched to their limits after a devastating earthquake hit southern Turkey and northwestern Syria in the early morning of February 6. Opposition-controlled northern Syria has been particularly affected, and doctors report a shortage of medical facilities to treat the injured. The FRANCE 24 Observers spoke to a hospital nurse in Salqin who said that the region is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis as a major lifeline for cross-border aid has been closed.
Hospitals in the north have been completely overwhelmed in the wake of the earthquake. And doctors in Syria say they don’t have the resources or equipment to address the severity or sheer scale of the injuries endured by survivors.
A number of hospitals were themselves damaged in the earthquake, overburdening those left functioning. Northern Syria’s medical infrastructure has already been crippled by heavy airstrikes in recent years carried out by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies.
‘All the hospitals are full. They can't take any more injured people’
In Atme, a town in the Idlib governorate in northern Syria, volunteers were forced to hastily dig a mass grave to bury the victims of a nearby building collapse.
Said al-Said, an activist in Atme, told the FRANCE 24 Observers team more:
There were about 30 people who died in the collapse of a five-story building. They were buried in this refugee camp in Atme, because their family members live there. This is the first time a mass grave has been dug here. They were not taken to the hospital because all the hospitals are full. They can't take any more injured people. There are more than 2,000 injured in hospitals so far. It was their relatives who came to the scene, to help identify them.
For the hospitals still functioning, many medical supplies and aid come across the border from Turkey, itself in the midst of a major crisis. The Bab al-Hawa border crossing connecting Syria and Turkey in Idlib governorate – the main lifeline for aid between the countries – was closed following the quake.
‘If the border stays closed, we’ll find ourselves in the midst of a humanitarian crisis’
Ahmad al-Helwi is a nurse at the al-Amal hospital in Salqin, a town in the Idlib governorate in northwestern Syria.
The border crossing at Bab al-Hawa was completely closed yesterday [February 6], in both directions. Since then, no one has crossed the border, including the wounded, sick and ambulances.
The hospitals in southern Turkey have received many injured people – that’s why the border was closed. Even severe cases aren’t allowed through. If the border stays closed, we’ll find ourselves in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. So far, we have not received any aid from other countries or from the UN. All the border crossings in Idlib and northern Aleppo are closed.
The search for wounded and killed in the debris is moving slowly, since the Syrian Civil Defence teams don’t have the resources to address this much destruction.
The border closure also has implications for international relief efforts. It is one of the only ways to move aid into northwestern Syria. Even if the border crossing reopens, the roads between Turkey and Syria have been severely damaged.
The Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, which serve as the main emergency management service in opposition-controlled zones, said Tuesday that hundreds of families were still trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings. The organisation said that urgent international aid was needed to save lives before time runs out.
>> Read more on The Observers: 'There's no one to help us': Syria's rebel-controlled zones in ruins after devastating earthquake
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake collapsed thousands of vulnerable structures across war-torn northern Syria. Northwestern Syria is the last enclave of opposition after more than 11 years of civil war, which has left the region devastated by infrastructure damage, shortages, health crises and internal displacement.
Within 11 hours after the quake, the region also felt at least 13 major aftershocks, in addition to another significant earthquake of magnitude 7.5.
The death toll surpassed 5,102 Tuesday morning across the two countries. In Syria, 1,712 people have been killed, including at least 900 people in the opposition-held northwest.
