ASTANA – Kazakhstan will deliver 55 tons of additional humanitarian assistance for the earthquake victims in Türkiye at the instruction of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, reported the Prime Minister’s press service on Feb. 15.
Kazakh rescue and medical teams conduct operations in Gaziantep and Nurdagi around the clock in two shifts. Photo credit: Kazakh Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The humanitarian relief includes clothes (warm jackets and trousers), tents, metal beds, and bedding, among other essential items. The airplane with humanitarian cargo will arrive in Gaziantep.
Kazakh citizens nationwide continue to donate to humanitarian relief efforts. According to the information center of the East Kazakhstan Region, residents collected more than 35 tons of humanitarian assistance, including food, blankets, sleeping bags, and warm clothes, among other essential items. The humanitarian aid will be sent to Astana on Feb. 15 and delivered to quake-affected areas in Türkiye.
As of Feb. 13, Kazakhstan’s citizens collected 115 tons of humanitarian aid across the country for Türkiye, according to the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development.
The third Kazakh aircraft with humanitarian assistance to Syria arrived in Aleppo on Feb. 14 as part of Kazakhstan’s effort to provide 50 tons of humanitarian assistance to the country.
The plane brought tents, blankets, mattresses, and other essential relief items. The last batch of aid will be delivered a day later.
Kazakhstan’s rescue and medical teams continue to work in two shifts in Gaziantep and Nurdagi around the clock.
According to the Kazakh Ministry of Emergency Situations, as of Feb. 15, the Kazakh rescuers have found seven survivors and recovered the bodies of 88 victims, including ten children. The Kazakh doctors treated more than 140 individuals, including 17 children.
On Feb. 14, a sniffer dog called Jacob helped a Kazakh rescue team find and rescue people trapped alive under rubble for more than a week after the earthquake. Keeping in contact with survivors, rescuers gradually moved toward them with the help of electric tools and pulled the father and his two children out of the rubble after more than 20 hours of working in shifts and risking their own lives.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Feb. 14 that 35,418 people were killed in the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck near the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras on Feb. 6, making it the deadliest earthquake in Turkish history. According to initially available information from the Health Disaster and Coordination Center of Türkiye, some 158,165 people have been evacuated from quake-hit areas as of Feb. 13.
