The United Nations World Food Programme has appealed for $46 million to meet the urgent food needs for a total of 500,000 people affected by devastating Monday earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.
The world food agency who disclosed this on Wednesday, stated that urgent food needs includes hot meals and food rations to 200,000 newly displaced people in Syria and 300,000 people in Türkiye, including 70,000 refugees and internally displaced people.
WFP has been on ground responding to the devastating impact of the two earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria on Monday, adding that food assistance has been underway since Tuesday with plans to reach half a million people in both countries.
As of Wednesday morning, the Agency said it had reached nearly 64,000 people in urgent need of food assistance, providing ready-to-eat food rations, family food packages and hot meals.
“The food being distributed requires no cooking and provides immediate relief for families whose precarious position is made worse by freezing temperatures.
“In southeast Türkiye – the area closest to the quakes’ epicentre – WFP is coordinating with authorities to provide family food packages to people in temporary camps.
“The camps already house around 44,000 Syrians under temporary protection and now include newly displaced Turkish nationals. WFP is delivering family food packages to 17,000 affected people in camps in the southeast.
“In areas where supermarkets and supply chains are struggling because of damaged infrastructure, WFP will provide family food packages to Turkish nationals for 1-2 weeks while services stabilize.
WFP stated further that it will also support municipalities in southeast to reactivate and expand soup kitchens set-up during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide daily hot meals to quake-affected families. WFP is working closely with the Turkish Red Crescent and partners.
“In Syria, WFP and its local partners have delivered ready-to-eat rations and daily hot meals to 38,000 affected people in shelters”.
WFP Regional Director in the Middle East, Northern Africa and Eastern Europe, Corinne Fleischer said, “The world woke up to devastating news on Monday. A region plagued by years of compounding crises, faces yet another one, with unimaginable loss and destruction.
“Immediate relief cannot be delayed. WFP’s strong footprint in the both countries enabled us to immediately mobilize our staff, logistics capacity and partners to respond to people’s most immediate food needs.”
The Agency complained that in northwest Syria, the quakes have further complicated an acute humanitarian crisis, in which 4.1 million people or 90% of the population – already depend on humanitarian assistance.
“Of these, close to 3 million people have been displaced by conflict – often more than once and despite the freezing temperatures still live in tents, makeshift shelters, or abandoned buildings.
Adding that it has enough ready-to-eat food inside northwest Syria to assist 125,000 people and is providing this to local partners. WFP has already provided partners with food for 30,000 people.
Millions of Syrians depend on United Nations cross-border assistance from Turkey, which is enabled by a Security Council resolution.
“WFP continues to appeal for unimpeded access to northwest Syria – now more than ever when humanitarian assistance is urgently needed to reach those affected by the quake. Nature has sadly affected those who already had to face years of compounded suffering and displacement,” added Fleischer.
Each month, WFP assists 5.5 million people across all of Syria. However, the programme is now only 30 percent funded and WFP faces the prospect of cutting up to 70 percent of the beneficiaries from July onwards should additional funding not materialize on time.
According to official numbers, the dead toll of the earthquakes that affected ten cities and dozens of villages in the south and southeast of Türkiye has exceeded 8,000 as of today while 49,133 people were injured.
Sadly, concerns about the losses and the extent of the damage are indescribable. Ramazan Ağar, President of YOL-İŞ, Türkiye Yol-İş Sendikası, arrived in the region in the first hours of the earthquake and is currently coordinating the urgent needs and response efforts.
YOL-İŞ has also launched a donation campaign to be delivered to the victims of the earthquake.