UN aid chief projects earthquake death toll in Turkiye, Syria to exceed 40,000

The final death toll from the recent powerful earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria may exceed 40,000 people, UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said on Saturday, Report informs via TASS.

"I think it’s really difficult to estimate, obviously, very precisely, because we need to get under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double or more," he told Sky News in the quake-hit city of Adana in Turkiye.

The country’s health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday the number of people killed by the series of tremors in southeastern Turkiye has reached 22,327, while over 80,000 were injured. Powerful 7.7-and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes rocked Turkiye’s Kahramanmaras province, located in the country’s southeast, on Monday.

The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in 10 provinces as well as in neighboring countries, of which Syria was hardest hit. The health ministry of the Arab Republic said earlier in the day that 1,387 people are currently listed as dead and 2,326 as injured.

"[It is] much more difficult for [Syria] to cope with this tragedy because of those desperate lost years [of the civil conflict]," Griffiths said. "The awful truth about Syria from a humanitarian perspective is that the needs of the people of Syria grow each year and despite generous funding, we fail to meet those needs. As a result, the people who live in absolute poverty in Syria grows - now 90% of the population.".