The West is not helping the Syrian government to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake and is only willing to send aid to areas controlled by illegal armed groups, Presidential Adviser to the Syrian President Bouthaina Shaaban told Sky News on Wednesday.
"Most of the money, all the equipment [for disaster relief] was sent to Turkey from Europe and from the United States. To Syria from Europe, nothing at all," Shaaban noted. "Unfortunately, the West only cares about the areas of Syria that are controlled by terrorists <...> it doesn't care about the areas where most Syrians live," she added, calling on Western countries to "put politics aside" in this regard.
A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Kahramanmaras province in southeastern Turkey on February 6. The quakes, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in 10 provinces of the country, as well as in neighboring countries, including Syria. According to the latest information more than 9 thousand people were killed in Turkey and more than 52 thousand people were injured. According to the information of the Syrian ministry of health, more than 1.2 thousand people became victims of natural disasters in the republic, the number of wounded exceeded 2.2 thousand. There is no confirmed information on deaths, casualties and destruction in the territories outside Damascus control. However, according to Al Jazeera, at least 1.5 thousand people were killed and more than 2.7 thousand were injured in the northern parts of the country controlled by illegal groups.
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Photo: Bernard Gagnon/Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS