A United Nations official estimates that more than five million Syrians are now homeless as a result of Monday’s deadly earthquakes that devastated Syria and its neighbor Turkey. On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) envoy in Syria, Sivanka Dhanapala, claimed that the earthquake might have displaced as many as 5.3 million people in Syria.
That’s a massive quantity, and it’s happening to a community that’s already been uprooted in large numbers. He said, “This is a crisis inside a crisis for Syria; we’ve had economic shocks, COVID, and are now in the depths of winter with blizzards raging in the impacted areas.” Camps for Syrians who have been evacuated from their homes during the past almost 12 years of conflict have seen an influx of survivors from the recent 7.8 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes. Many people either lost their houses or are afraid to go back to their damaged ones. Over 3,300 individuals in Syria alone have lost their lives as a direct result of the earthquake. According to Dhanapala, “it’s been very, very difficult” for the UNHCR to provide help to the worst-hit areas of Syria. Six and a half million citizens have been forced to relocate within the country. That was before the quake, by the way. Meanwhile, after just six vehicles entered rebel-held regions of Syria on Thursday, a second UN relief convoy of 14 trucks has passed into those areas. With the help of the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations, the Syrian government has pledged to enable assistance supplies to regions under the control of the rebels.
“but an assessment team is already on the ground and the demands are projected to considerably surpass that,” Saloomey said on Friday, when the United Nations issued an additional $25 million in emergency funds for Syria, increasing the total so far to $50 million. After nonviolent protests in 2011 were violently suppressed, the crisis in Syria grew and drew in outside forces and armed organizations. Approximately half of the country’s pre-war population has been displaced as a result of the fighting, with many seeking safety in Turkey.
