Turkey-Syria quake dead toll passes 24,000

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) – Monitoring: A winter freeze in the affected areas has hurt rescue efforts and compounded the suffering of millions of people, many in desperate need of aid.
 
At least 870,000 people urgently needed food in the two countries after the quake, which has left up to 5.3 million people homeless in Syria alone, the UN warned.
 
Aftershocks following Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor have added to the death toll and further upended the lives of survivors.
 
"When I see the destroyed buildings, the bodies, it's not that I can't see where I will be in two or three years — I can't imagine where I'll be tomorrow," said Fidan Turan, a pensioner in Turkey's southern city of Antakya, her eyes filling with tears.
 
An aerial view shows damaged and collapsed buildings, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey February 10, 2023.
 
"We've lost 60 of our extended family members," she said. "Sixty! What can I say? It's God's will."
 
The United Nations World Food Programme appealed for $77 million to provide food rations to at least 590,000 newly displaced people in Turkey and 284,000 in Syria.
 
Of those, 545,000 were internally displaced people and 45,000 were refugees, it said.