UK teams continue search for survivors in quake-hit Turkish province as ‘critical’ 72-hour rescue window lapses

Emergency personnel conduct a rescue operation to save 16-year-old Melda from the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey. (AFP)
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Updated 09 February 2023
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UK teams continue search for survivors in quake-hit Turkish province as ‘critical’ 72-hour rescue window lapses

  • Buildings in Hatay collapsed in way that left many survivable voids, rescue team member says

LONDON: A member of a UK search and rescue team in the quake-hit Turkish province of Hatay has said there was still hope of finding survivors despite a “critical” 72-hour rescue window having lapsed, Sky News reported on Thursday.

More than 2,000 buildings have been destroyed in the southern area of Turkiye, situated only a few miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck in the early hours of Monday.

David O’Neill, of the UK International Search and Rescue Team, told Sky News that people continued to be found buried in the rubble.

He said: “It is surprising, but it is encouraging.”

The first three days after an earthquake are considered the most likely in which to find people alive.

According to a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University, in England, the average survival rate after the first 24 hours drops from 74 percent to 22 percent by the third day, and 6 percent by the fifth.

“The way these buildings have collapsed they leave many survivable voids within them and given the time that this happened, a lot of people are wrapped up in bedding and such.

“While the people that were recovered yesterday were very dehydrated and slightly hypothermic because of the extremely cold conditions here, they are still alive,” O’Neill added.

He pointed out that families knew exactly where their loved ones were situated in collapsed buildings and had been able to reach them with food and water, helping keep them alive while rescuers worked to remove twisted metal and mounds of concrete surrounding them.

A team of 40 people were working to rescue two people trapped inside a building in central Hatay, Sky News reported.

On Tuesday, a plane carrying 77 British search and rescue personnel, equipment, and four dogs landed in Turkiye.

The team, made up of firefighters and staff from throughout the UK, are using seismic listening devices, concrete cutting and breaking equipment, and propping and shoring tools.

The World Health Organization has estimated that the final death toll from the quake in Turkiye and Syria could exceed 20,000.

 


US condemns RSF drone attack on World Food Programme convoy in Sudan’s North Kordofan

Updated 42 min 27 sec ago
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US condemns RSF drone attack on World Food Programme convoy in Sudan’s North Kordofan

  • Denise Brown, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, also expresses concern over the drone attack

WASHINGTON: The US has condemned a drone attack by Rapid Support Forces on an aid convoy in Sudan’s North Kordofan state that killed one person and injured three others.

“The United States condemns the recent drone attack on a World Food Program convoy in North Kordofan transporting food to famine-stricken people which killed one and wounded many others,” US Senior Adviser for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos wrote on X.

“Destroying food intended for people in need and killing humanitarian workers is sickening,” the US envoy wrote.

“The Trump Administration has zero tolerance for this destruction of life and of U.S.-funded assistance; we demand accountability and extend our condolences to all those affected by these inexcusable events and terrible war,” he added.

The Sudan Doctors Network said the convoy was struck by RSF drones in the Allah Karim area as it headed toward displaced people in El-Obeid, the state capital, Anadolu Agency reported.

The network described the attack as a “clear violation of international humanitarian law,” warning that it undermines efforts to deliver life-saving aid to civilians amid worsening humanitarian conditions across the country.

There was no immediate comment from the rebel group.

 

 

Denise Brown, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, in a statement also expressed concern over the drone attack which hit the aid trucks in North Kordofan.

“I am deeply concerned by a drone attack earlier today on trucks contracted by the World Food Programme (WFP) in North Kordofan, the aftermath of which I came across a few hours later, as I left the state capital, El Obeid.”

“The trucks were en route from Kosti to deliver life-saving food assistance to displaced families near El Obeid when they were struck, tragically killing at least one individual and injuring many more. The trucks caught fire, destroying food commodities intended for life-saving humanitarian response.”

Brown added that “Humanitarian personnel, assets and supplies must be protected at all times. Attacks on aid operations undermine efforts to reach people facing hunger and displacement.”

“Safe and unimpeded humanitarian access remains critical to ensure assistance reaches the most vulnerable people across Sudan.”

Since April 2023, the conflict between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary forces has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and which the UN has described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

An alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), confirmed famine conditions in El-Fasher and Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, about 800 kilometers to the east.

The IPC said that 20 more areas in Sudan’s Darfur and neighboring Kordofan were at risk of famine.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states in the western Darfur region, except for parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army holds most areas of the remaining 13 states across the south, north, east and center of the country, including the capital, Khartoum.

The conflict between the army and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023, has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.