NATO sends temporary accommodation containers to Turkey for 4,000 people affected by the earthquake

MADRID, 20 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

NATO has begun this Sunday with the shipment from Italy of the first 600 containers of the more than 1,000 provisional homes that will be sent to Turkey to accommodate up to 4,000 affected by the earthquake who lost their homes.

The first merchant ship left on Sunday night from the port of Taranto, in Italy, with the first 600 temporary residences to deal with the consequences of the earthquake on February 6, which left a total of 84,726 buildings demolished. , all this while the Turkish Government begins to plan the construction of new houses for all the people who have lost their homes after the earthquake.

NATO expects the delivery to arrive at Iskenderum in Hatay province next week and the establishment of the temporary camp to begin once the equipment has been unloaded.

In this regard, a NATO joint civil-military operational liaison and reconnaissance team has been preparing the site of the camp as well as coordinating logistics and local support.

In addition, NATO is also coordinating the strategic airlift of tents from Pakistan to Turkey.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Turkey on February 16 to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with officials, to visit the ground and coordinate operations.

Previously, the president of Turkey stated this week that construction work will begin on 30,000 houses at the beginning of March.

"Our objective is to complete the construction of safe and high-quality buildings in one year that solve the housing need in the entire earthquake zone," said the president after the cabinet meeting held at the coordination center of the Management Authority of Disasters and Emergencies (AFAD).

Regarding the deaths caused by the earthquake, the Turkish agency for disaster management, AFAD, has raised this Sunday the number of deaths from the earthquakes of February 6 in the south of the country to 41,020 fatalities, according to the official agency. Anatolia Turkish News.

To this figure must be added the fatalities from the earthquake in northwestern Syria, which are much more difficult to calculate. The United Nations estimates that between 4,000 and 4,400 people have died in the area, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Thus, the earthquakes would have left approximately more than 45,000 deaths, each time closer to the initial estimate of the UN, which estimated the total number of fatalities at least 50,000.