Africa-Press – South-Africa. It was a very emotional day. We were visiting families, sitting outside their completely destroyed homes, many waiting for rescuers to pull family members from the debris.”
This was the response of Azhar Vadi, the founder of the Salaam Foundation, about the search and rescue missions in earthquake-stricken Turkey. Vadi flew to Turkey on Monday to assist with search and rescue operations and food supply, among other things.
Speaking to News24 from Hatay, Vadi lamented the shortage of medical and rescue efforts, saying most buildings had been reduced to dust while survivors frantically searched for loved ones.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday morning, causing thousands of deaths and widespread destruction, which led to calls for assistance.
Vadi said he was concerned that the shortage of search and rescue services would leave scores of people unaccounted for.
He said:
Vadi said the situation was likely worse in neighbouring Syria, which he also attributed to a shortage of supplies and damage to roads leading into the country.
“The area affected has been the centre of the civil war, so there aren’t many Syrian producers of anything, only refugee camps. They are dependent on one single border crossing for supplies from Turkey. And now nothing is coming through. Many homes and buildings are destroyed in Syria, and the number of people trapped underneath is very high because they have very few machines to do heavy digging.”
Ahmed Bham from Gift of the Givers spoke to News24 en route to Hatay. He flew to Turkey on Wednesday and was among the volunteers deployed for the search and rescue mission.
“We are part of the Turkish disaster management agency, which works with all search and rescue teams and dispatches [volunteers] to different areas, including where there are surviving civilians. The devastation is intense. People are on the roadside, homeless,” he said.
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