Türkiye Earthquake Damage Set to Exceed $100 Bln, Says UN Agency

This picture shows collapsed buildings in Hatay on March 6, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)
This picture shows collapsed buildings in Hatay on March 6, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)
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Türkiye Earthquake Damage Set to Exceed $100 Bln, Says UN Agency

This picture shows collapsed buildings in Hatay on March 6, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)
This picture shows collapsed buildings in Hatay on March 6, 2023, one month after a massive earthquake struck southeastern Türkiye. (AFP)

Damage caused by a devastating earthquake in Türkiye will exceed $100 billion, a UN Development Program official told a press briefing on Tuesday ahead of a major donor conference next week.

"It's clear from the calculations being done to date that the damage figure presented by the government and supported by...international partners would be in excess of $100 billion," said the UNDP's Louisa Vinton, by video link from Gaziantep.

More than 52,000 people were killed in Türkiye and Syria by the Feb. 6 earthquakes, with many being crushed or buried in their sleep.

The provisional damage figure, which Vinton said covers just Türkiye, is being used as a basis for a donor conference to mobilize funds for earthquake victims in Brussels, Belgium on March 16, she added.

The World Bank previously estimated the Türkiye damage at around $34.2 billion.

Vinton described the scenes in Türkiye’s worst-hit Hatay province as "apocalyptic", saying hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed.

"The needs are vast but the resources are scarce," she added.



Bodies of Four Migrants Found as Boat Sinks off Greek Island of Lesbos

A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
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Bodies of Four Migrants Found as Boat Sinks off Greek Island of Lesbos

A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture

The bodies of four migrants - one boy, one girl and two women - have been recovered from a sinking boat off the Greek island of Lesbos while another 23 migrants were rescued, Greece's coastguard said on Thursday.

The boat was detected by a patrolling coastguard vessel at about 2 a.m. (2300 GMT). A search and rescue operation was still ongoing, a coastguard official said. It was not immediately clear how many people may have been on the boat, Reuters reported.

Greece, in the southeast corner of the European Union, has long been a favored gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In 2015 nearly 1 million people landed on its islands.

Last year, about 54,000 migrants reached Greece, the second largest number in southern Europe behind Italy. The vast majority of them arrived by sea, according to data from the UN refugee agency UNHCR.