The World Bank announced Thursday $1.78 billion in aid to Turkey to help relief and recovery efforts after a massive earthquake hit the country and neighbouring Syria, claiming more than 20,000 lives.
The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early Monday, with Turkish officials saying that over 70,000 people have been injured across 10 southeastern provinces hit hardest by the disaster.
“We are providing immediate assistance and preparing a rapid assessment of the urgent and massive needs on the ground,” said World Bank President David Malpass in a statement.
“This will identify priority areas for the country’s recovery and reconstruction as we prepare operations to support those needs,” he added.
Immediate assistance of $780 million will be offered via Contingent Emergency Response Components from two existing projects in Turkey, said the bank.
“The assistance will be used for rebuilding basic infrastructure at the municipal level,” the Washington-based development lender added.
Meanwhile, an added $1 billion in operations is being prepared to support people affected amid recovery and reconstruction from the catastrophe, the bank added.
The country’s needs are “immense and span the whole range from relief to reconstruction,” said Humberto Lopez, World Bank Country Director for Turkey.
U.S. announces $85 million in aid
The United States on Thursday announced an initial $85 million package for emergency relief after a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
The US Agency for International Development said that the funding will go to partners on the ground “to deliver urgently needed aid for millions of people” including through food, shelter and emergency health services.
The funding will also support safe drinking water and sanitation to prevent the outbreak of disease, USAID said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier Thursday spoke by telephone with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to discuss the NATO ally’s needs.
“We are proud to join the global efforts to help Turkey just as Turkey has so often contributed its own humanitarian rescue experts to so many other countries in the past,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters as he described the call.
The United States has already sent rescue teams to Turkey and has contributed concrete breakers, generators, water purification systems and helicopters, officials said.
USAID said that rescue teams were focused on badly hit Adiyaman, seeking survivors with dogs, cameras and listening devices.
Following major damage to roads and bridges, the US military has sent Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters to transfer supplies, it said.
Assistance in Syria is going through local partners as the United States refuses to deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Washington demands accountability over abuses during the brutal civil war.
An aid convoy earlier Thursday reached rebel-held northwestern Syria for the first time since the earthquake, going through the only open border crossing—Bab al-Hawa on the Turkish side.
Russia, the key international backer of Assad, has wielded its veto power at the UN Security Council to stop other crossings and authorize Bab al-Hawa only six months at a time as it tries to promote the sovereignty of the Damascus government.
“We call on the Assad regime to immediately allow aid in through all border crossings and to let humanitarians access all Syrians in need without exceptions,” Mr. Price said.
