Powerful quake leaves thousands dead in Turkey and Syria
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
Despite its tensions with Turkey, Greece is among the countries that have dispatched help to the country, but conflict-torn northwestern Syria makes the same efforts "more complicated," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told CNN on Tuesday.
Greece and Turkey "are neighbors who need to help each other through difficult times. This is not the first time earthquakes have struck our countries," he said. "This is a time to temporarily set aside our differences and try to address what is a very very urgent situation."
In Syria, however, there is no official interlocutor and no assurance that aid will make it to the impacted area and people, and that makes relief efforts hard to pull off, Mitsotakis said.
"No country on its own has the ability to actually make these sorts of arrangements. That's why I think it is important that these negotiations could take place either through the UN or through the European Union by pulling resources. I would not feel confident having these sort of discussions at a bilateral level," he told CNN, adding that he has not directly communicated with Damascus.
Remember: Northwestern Syria, which has been impacted by the earthquake, has been struggling since the the country's civil war. Currently, several parts of northwestern Syria, including Idlib, are still controlled by anti-government rebels.
"I want to stress this: this is not about geopolitics. This is not about sort of recognizing any regime. This is about saving people in horrible conditions who desperately need our assistance," he added.
CNN has reached out to the Syrian foreign ministry about concerns over aid reaching affected areas in Syria.
Meanwhile, Bassam Sabbagh, Syria's representative to the UN, said that access exists for countries. "So anyone who'd like to help Syria they can coordinate with the government and we will be ready to do so."
Hospitals in Syria are "absolutely overloaded," says UNICEF representative in Aleppo
From CNN's Hira Humayun
Hospitals in earthquake-hit Syria are “absolutely overloaded,” UNICEF representative in Aleppo, Angela Kearney, told CNN’s Christina Macfarlane on Tuesday.
Kearney said hospitals are full of patients with trauma, broken bones and lacerations, and that some people are also going to the hospital to seek help for the mental trauma they endured when the quake struck.
While hospitals are functioning, the task has been overwhelming, Kearney said.
Describing the scene in Aleppo when the earthquake struck on Monday, Kearney said children who have already been traumatized by war were “bewildered. didn’t know what was happening.”
Kearney said that on Monday morning when UNICEF began its work in the area, there were seven schools in Aleppo city that were being used as shelters. By Tuesday morning, that grew to 67 schools, and currently, it is nearly 200.
“In all of those schools that are partially damaged, there are families there who left their apartments, left their houses with just their pajamas,” Kearny said adding that while aid is starting to go into the affected areas, there is still a need for blankets, food, clean water, medical care and nutritional care.
Kearny said water, sanitation and nutrition needs are the most urgent. “The aid is starting to go in but it is overwhelming; the needs are very great,” she said.
Kearney said that the Syrian government is also in Aleppo with authorities giving aid but that the needs are very great.
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