Forty seconds is an eternity when the ground shakes like early Monday mornings in Turkey and Syria. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter in Gaziantep, destroyed dozens of cities in southern Turkey, such as Malatya, Adiyaman and Diyarbakir., and northwestern Syria, including Aleppo, Idlib, Hama or Latakia. The final balance will be thousands of dead, tens of thousands of wounded, and thousands more left in ruins. For many, help will come late. Many of the victims are refugees and displaced Syrians who fled the war and are trapped in a natural disaster of historic proportions.

“What we experienced in Aleppo was worse than the worst of the bombings,” Miriam (not her real name) told her brother Musa, who from Spain has not stopped referring to his family living in this Syrian city as a symbol of devastation. the war that the country has been going through since 2011. As soon as he learned about the terrible earthquake that had occurred in the area, he tried to find his family. Two brothers, a sister and an uncle live in the affected area. “My sister said that they were very scared because the building next to her collapsed. Miraculously, they were saved.”

Musa’s sister, who has been living in Aleppo with her family for five years, is in no hurry to answer calls because when she heard the first messages, she was still trying to save her children. “They are outside, outside, and it is raining heavily. No one comes to their aid, but they do not want to return to the building, because they are afraid of new tremors. I was told that many people are dead and many are missing. It will be difficult to save them, because the country is not ready for such a disaster.”

Most of the buildings in Aleppo, one of the cities hit hardest by bombing during the war in Syria, were in a terrible state. Spontaneous collapses have occurred many times due to its poor condition. Although the conflict is less reported, the attacks continue, so Syrian organizations have appealed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin not to bomb the earthquake-hit region.

Most displaced Syrians live in Aleppo and other cities in the earthquake-hit area, in tents or barracks, or at best in crumbling buildings. Consequently, the toll is feared to be enormous, with over a million displaced Syrians estimated to be in the region. Part of it is outside the control of the Assad regime. In addition, rescue services, the so-called. white helmetsThey don’t have much money.

There are also thousands of Syrian refugees in the earthquake-hit Turkish part. Gaziantemp, a city of about two million people, is home to at least half a million Syrians. Gaziantemp Castle, built during the Roman Empire, was destroyed. In Kahramanmaras, about 25,000 people lived in containers.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who faces a crucial election on May 14, said the earthquake was the country’s worst since 1939, when 33,000 deaths were recorded. In 1999, another magnitude 7.8 was recorded, named Izmit, which killed nearly 17,900 people, a thousand in Istanbul. The earthquake occurred on the East Anatolian fault, in the area of ​​the junction of the Eurasian, Anatolian, Arabian and African plates.

overcrowded hospitals

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, director of programs for the non-governmental organization Still I Rise, acknowledged in a video that there are not enough rescue people in Syria. “The neighbors are trying to help them by digging the ground with their own hands,” Alhamdo says. The activist denounces the abandonment that Syrians have suffered and are suffering from. To the tragedy that they endured for 12 years, destruction of biblical proportions has now been added.

“Hospitals in northwest Syria are overcrowded and no longer accepting anyone. Many would have been saved if we had rescue teams and enough hospitals. Lonely. We have abandoned them in recent years. the entire international community. It’s devastating,” Alhamdo concludes.

The survivors are exposed to inclement weather. In addition to rain, the temperature reaches 10 degrees below zero. “Thousands of people were left homeless in Turkey and Syria. There are snow storms in this area,” said Sasha Ekanayake, director of Save the Children Turkey. This non-governmental organization from Syria draws attention to children “who may be trapped under the rubble.” These are the children who suffer for years due to food shortages, inclement weather and difficult access to health care.

Hamid Kuteini, lifeguard white helmets, told NPR that “dozens of families” were trapped. He keeps a count of the dead, which does not cease to increase. In a Syrian journalist’s tweet, a child in Idlib is heard screaming for help to get out of the building he was trapped in. Idlib is suffering from devastation and abandonment similar to what they described in Aleppo.

Sebastien Gay, general coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières in Syria, confirmed that medical centers are overwhelmed. “Medical personnel in the north of Sirius are working tirelessly to respond to the huge number of wounded arriving at medical facilities. Since early morning, our teams have treated about 200 wounded and 160 deaths in clinics we operate or maintain in northern Idlib.” An MSF staff member in Idlib has died, buried in his home.

“In northwestern Syria, the needs are enormous, and this earthquake is adding new drama to vulnerable populations who continue to suffer after years of war. The huge impact of this disaster will require appropriate international assistance,” says Gay of MSF.

“It is imperative that we do not leave the Syrians to their fate. Every minute of our delay will cost human lives,” said Carsten Hansen, Regional Director for the Middle East of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

This was stated by EU Special Representative for Syria Dan Stoenescu.on his Twitter account that the lives of “millions of refugees and displaced persons” are in danger in the northwest of the country because of the poor conditions in which they live. The EU offered its assistance to the victims and mobilized its emergency response teams in the Netherlands and Romania. Assistance has also been announced by the United States, Britain, Israel in the case of Turkey, and Russia, China, Lebanon or Algeria in the case of Syria. The difficulty will lie in the coordination of operations, since the Assad regime is not recognized by the West. This Monday, the Assad regime agreed to open the border crossing to facilitate relief, but the Syrian Association for the Dignity of Citizens is urging greater access.

“The Syrians have always been abandoned. There is my family in the rain,” concludes Musa humbly.