Turkey-Syria earthquake: Children ‘completely on edge’ amid ongoing aftershocks, UNICEF says
The earthquake in Turkey and Syria has left children “completely on edge” and fearing their “world is going to be turned upside down again” amid ongoing aftershocks, a spokesperson for UNICEF has said.
Nearly 52,000 people lost their lives in the disaster, which flattened many buildings and left others too dangerous to occupy.
Joe English, a communication specialist at UNICEF who visited Turkey and Syria, told the Sky News Daily podcast the scale of destruction “knocked me sideways” and he saw “buildings just completely flattened, pancaked, buildings ripped in half”.
But for many in Syria, the earthquake is just another catastrophe on top of the Syrian civil war.
Mr English said families in northwest Syria were already living in tents “because they have been displaced not once or twice, but multiple times by the conflict.”
He added: “We’re now approaching 12 years of conflict. There was one young boy I was speaking to earlier this week, Majid, and he was nine years old.
“His entire childhood has been spent set against this backdrop of airstrikes and displacement and once again being forced from his home once again, his mum having to explain to him why they can’t stay where they are. This is just the latest catastrophe.”
Mr English said it was “critical” for children to return to school as soon as possible, “because that gives them that hope for the future and that gives them that sense that there is something better coming down the road”.
Sabriye Shaymusa, nine, gets stools out of her damaged home for their tent in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Bozhoyuk, Turkey
This generation will rebuild the country
Mr English said Majid and his brother told him when they grow up they want to work as a doctor or an engineer.
“And I thought that’s such a specific dream for a child. But then you look around you and you think they want to be able to help the people that they see every day,” he said.
“They want to be doctors so that they can help heal people who are injured, whether it’s by the earthquake or by the conflict. They want to be engineers because they’ve seen their societies destroyed over and over again, whether it is by fighting in the conflict or by these horrific natural disasters.”
A damaged mosque is seen in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in rebel-held al-Maland village, in Idlib province, Syria
A man waves to a neighbour as he walks to his damaged home in Bozhoyuk, Turkey
Another looming crisis
Mr English warned that earthquake survivors in Syria now face another looming crisis around access to clean water, with thousands of suspected cholera cases being reported in northwest Syria.
“It is a sad irony that you can speak to a child who has lived through 12 years of war or catastrophic earthquakes, tens of thousands of aftershocks, and the thing which could be the biggest risk to them right now is a glass of water,” Mr English said.
Syrian artist Aziz Asmar paints street art on the rubble of damaged buildings in the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria
Hopefully the world will not move on again
He said it was important to ensure the crisis in Turkey and Syria does not leave people’s minds, by getting people to “continue to talk about this work, to donate to the organisations that are doing this incredible work, to put pressure on their politicians to continue supporting this work.
“Hopefully we will not be in a situation in a month from now, or a year from now, where the world has moved on again.”
The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.
European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.
Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.
Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.
Ukraine war latest: Kyiv to discuss ending war in talks in Switzerland
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Keir Starmer calls for growth plan at G20
The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.
One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.
Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.
Read more:
Trump’s 28-point Ukraine peace plan in full
Analysis: We could all pay if Europe doesn’t guarantee Ukraine’s security
Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a plenary session on the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Pic: Reuters
“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.
“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”
Pic: AP
On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.
“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Pic: AP
Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.
Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.
There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.
But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.
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