U.N. appeals for quake aid

$1 billion is requested to help 5.2 million of Turkey’s survivors, days after a plea for millions for Syrians.

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations appealed Thursday for $1 billion to help 5.2 million earthquake survivors in Turkey, two days after starting a $397-million appeal to help nearly 5 million quake survivors across the border in Syria’s rebel-held northwest.

Stéphane Dujarric, a U.N. spokesman, was asked why the appeal for Turkey is targeted at only 5.2 million people when more than 15 million were reportedly affected there. He also was asked why the appeal is more than 2½ times larger than the one for almost the same number of people in Syria.

He said Thursday’s appeal “was designed in very close cooperation with the government of Turkey,” and “this is the number they came up with for the focus on people who need the most humanitarian aid, most quickly, and where the U.N. can be most effective.”

The disparity in the amounts requested, he said, is partly because “there is already a well-established humanitarian community ... working in Syria,” and because there was a $4.8-billion humanitarian appeal for Syria this year before the quake.

Both appeals are for emergency funds for the next three months, and will be followed by requests for longer-term help.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that $1 billion would allow aid groups to rapidly scale up support for government-led relief efforts in Turkey, including providing food, water and shelter to survivors of the magnitude 7.8 quake that devastated southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Feb. 6.

“The needs are enormous, people are suffering, and there’s no time to lose,” Guterres said. “I urge the international community to step up and fully fund this critical effort in response to one of the biggest natural disasters of our times.”

He noted that “Turkey is home to the largest number of refugees in the world and has shown enormous generosity to its Syrian neighbors for years.”

More than 1.74 million refugees live in the part of Turkey affected by the quake, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

The earthquake has left hundreds of thousands of people without shelter, food, water, heaters or medical care in freezing temperatures, and the U.N. has been criticized for being slow to get quake aid and heavy equipment into Syria’s northwest.

Before the earthquake, global humanitarian needs were already 25% higher this year than last, said Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman.

“Our humanitarian system is stretched to the limit,” he said, noting that many people needing aid are in areas beset by conflict and the effects of climate change.

He added that it was frustrating that “so many of these issues could be addressed beforehand,” but dealing with them “lands on the U.N.’s doorstep.”

“We hope that member states find the solidarity and generosity that is needed,” he said, “also from the public and private sector.”