Turkey-Syria earthquake: More than 2,600 people killed in earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Dubai:
The United Arab Emirates pledged humanitarian aid worth about $13.6 million to Syria on Monday following an earthquake in Turkey that killed at least 1,000 people in the war-torn country, state media reported.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck before dawn on Monday near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, killing more than 1,651 people in Turkey and another 1,000 in neighboring Syria.
Emirati Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum “sent urgent humanitarian aid to those affected in Syria,” according to the official WAM news agency.
The aid is estimated at 50 million dirhams, it added.
Countries around the world have quickly mobilized to send relief and rescue workers to the affected areas.
The UAE has sent a first plane to Adana Airport in southern Turkey “with search and rescue teams, crews and medical equipment on board,” WAM said.
The UAE said it planned to establish a field hospital in Turkey and also send search and rescue teams to Syria, along with urgent and emergency supplies, the news agency added.
Earlier on Monday, Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan extended his condolences to his Syrian and Turkish counterparts in two separate phone calls, according to WAM.
He “emphasized the UAE’s support for Syria and Turkiye and offered to provide all assistance in their efforts to mitigate the effects of the earthquake,” he said.
The UAE reopened its embassy in the Syrian capital in December 2018, signaling an effort to bring the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad back into the Arab fold after years of boycott.
Last March, Assad visited the UAE – his first visit to an Arab state in more than a decade of brutal civil war.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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