The head of the United Nations World Food Program said on Saturday he witnessed “horrifying” scenes while visiting earthquake-hit areas in southern Turkey.
Strong earthquakes, which began on February 6, have rocked neighboring Turkey and Syria, killing more than 50,000 people, according to the latest data released on Friday.
“There’s only one way to describe what I saw today: the end of the world,” said David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP), after visiting the city of Antakya in Turkey’s Hatay province.
You can see this on TV you all wantma until you’re here on the terrain, it is impossible to imagine the scale of devastation caused by an earthquake caused in #Turkey. Antakya was a city of 1.5m people Now it’s a ghost town.
There is only one way to describe this: apocalyptic. photo.twitter.com/DNiY342U3c
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) February 25, 2023
“Whole neighborhoods have been flattened, homes destroyed, schools and shops closed, and lives lost. The scale of the destruction here is truly staggering,” he added.
The official said in a statement that the situation on the Syrian side amounts to “disaster upon disaster”, referring to the 12-year civil war.
The World Food Program said Beasley visited a UN logistics centre in Turkey, where trucks are loaded with food and other emergency supplies before crossing into northwestern Syria.
I am here in #TurkeyWhere @WFP AND supporting nearly 1 million people affected by these devastating earthquakes. Our teams they are all going out – from the delivery of hot meals e family food packages to set up 500+ mobile kitchens with local partners. And there’s more! photo.twitter.com/bRwEZ2Xfth
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) February 25, 2023
He underlined the urgent need to increase food deliveries to Syria “through all routes without any restrictions” and called on “all parties to facilitate access”.
Opposition factions control northwestern Syria, whose residents already depend on aid to meet basic needs. This was the area most affected by the earthquake in Syria.
The increase in aid shipments is linked to the opening of more crossings from Turkey to areas controlled by the factions.
One of the crossings, Bab al-Hawa, is already being used under a mandate from the United Nations Security Council, and Bashar al-Assad has granted exceptional permission to open two more crossings for a period of three months.
