February 7, 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake news

The death toll from the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria is now at least 7,266.

Syria’s volunteer organization the White Helmets — also known as Syria Civil Defense — has updated the death toll in northwest Syria to 1,020 in opposition-held areas. As per Syrian state media, at least 812 people are dead in government-controlled areas. This brings Syria’s total death toll to at least 1,832. 

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a news conference on Tuesday that the death toll in Turkey is now 5,434. 

At least 31,777 people have been injured in Turkey, according to Koca.

In Syria at least 3,849 people have been injured with at least 1,449 in Syria’s government-controlled areas according to Syrian state media, and at least 2,400 in opposition-controlled northwest Syria according to the White Helmets.

At least 35,626 people have been injured across both countries.

A baby girl has been rescued from the rubble of her home in northern Syria following Monday’s massive earthquake.

Her umbilical cord was still attached to her mother when she was found, a relative told Agence France-Presse. Her mother is believed to have died after giving birth.

“We heard a voice while we were digging,” cousin Khalil al-Suwadi told the AFP on Tuesday. “We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact), so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital.”

The girl is now receiving treatment at a children’s hospital in the town of Afrin. Pediatrician Hani Maarouf told the AFP that she is stable but arrived with bruises, lacerations and hypothermia.

The baby is the sole survivor of her immediate family, according to Suwadi. They lived in a five-story apartment building that was leveled by the quake.

Read more here.

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.

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.

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 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.

At least 5,775 buildings collapsed after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit 10 provinces in Turkey on Monday, according to Orhan Tatar, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency's general director (AFAD). 

Tatar said, there are a total of 60,217 personnel who are helping with rescue operations in 10 provinces in Turkey.

At least four Ukrainian nationals were injured and 19 are missing following the earthquake in Turkey, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.

"In total, diplomats have already found 38 [Ukrainian] citizens and are working with Turkish rescue services to find the other 19 Ukrainians who have not been in touch," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said. 

The four wounded Ukrainians suffered "minor injuries. Their lives are not in danger, and they do not need hospitalization," Nikolenko said, adding that "the victims are provided with temporary housing and food."

He added that the ministry is preparing to send Ukrainian consuls to the city of Gaziantep.

Canada says it is conferring with allies and trusted aid organizations as it considers how best to aid victims of the earthquake that has left thousands dead in Turkey in Syria, a process it says is complicated by a civil war in Syria and weather and logistics issues in Turkey.

Canada announced an initial $7.5 million in aid Tuesday and said it is considering matching private donations. And the Canadian government says it is still assessing both the initial and long-term needs in both Turkey and Syria.

“We have to conduct the assessments but figure out, you know, all that information has to be kind of worked out. Nothing's off the table so we’ll look at any options,” said Harjit Sajjan, Canada’s minister for International Development, during a press briefing with reporters in Ottawa Tuesday.

Canada says it is considering sending search and rescue and medical teams in addition to possibly deploying the Canadian Armed Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team.

The Turkish port of Iskenderun remains closed following heavy damage from Monday’s earthquake and the subsequent fire which broke out amongst containers at the terminal yesterday evening, Danish container shipping firm Maersk said on Tuesday.

“The Port of Iskenderun remains closed until further notice, as teams look to repair the significant damage caused by the disaster and subsequent fire,” Maersk said in an updated statement Tuesday.

The company said that it is unclear when operations will resume and that it is looking to develop contingency plans, including diverting vessels.

Earlier on Tuesday, the company said that the fire was yet to be fully under control by authorities.

Separately, Maersk told CNN that it has been working with the EU and other global partners since early Monday morning “to assess and provide the support needed in Turkey and Syria.”

At least 6,326 people across Turkey and Syria have been killed in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the region on Monday.

The death toll climbed to 4,544 in Turkey on Tuesday where 10 provinces were impacted, according to Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD).

The number of those killed in Syria is more than 1,782: More than 970 people have been killed in opposition-held areas, according to Syria’s White Helmets, which is also known as Syria Civil Defense. In government-controlled areas, the death toll is 812, according to the state news agency SANA.

At least 30,474 people have been injured in the two countries, according to figures from the Turkish government, the White Helmets, and Syrian state media.