Today's top news: Türkiye and Syria

Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has been visiting areas affected by the 6 February earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.

He is currently in Damascus. This morning, he was in Aleppo and spoke to families who lost loved ones and their homes and met first responders and aid workers who have worked tirelessly to meet urgent humanitarian needs.

He said the trauma of the people he spoke to in Aleppo was visible — and this is a trauma which the world needs to heal. Mr. Griffiths said it’s our obligation to ensure shelter, food, schooling, psychosocial care, and a sense of the future for people affected by the earthquake.

Mr. Griffiths also visited Türkiye over the weekend.  On 11 February, he went to Kahramanmaras in the south-east of the country and met with families affected by the disaster and listened to their stories of shock and devastation.

“What I saw in Türkiye was devastating”, he said. “What were once homes, filled with families and memories, now lay contorted and tangled. We will make people are not forgotten. We stand with them, and we will continue to support in any way we can.”

He also spoke with search and rescue teams as they carried out their operations in the devastated central parts of the city and commended the bravery and commitment of all the first responders on the ground.

Yesterday, Mr. Griffiths went to Gaziantep. He met with NGOs and UN colleagues involved in the response and applauded the determination and the courage of the teams working across the earthquake disaster zone. Many have themselves lost family, friends, colleagues. But when called upon, they turn up he noted. He also visited to the UN transshipment centre at the Turkish border and was encouraged by the scale-up of convoys. He called for more access points to be open and to get more aid out fast.