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KING SENDS CONDOLENCES TO TüRKIYE, SYRIA

By KWANELE DHLADHLA | 2023-02-08

His Majesty King Mswat Ill has sent condolences to Türkiye and Syria after 6 200 people died as result of the earthquake.''

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Thuli Dladla, said she has it in command of the King, Her Majesty the Queen Mother, government and people of Eswatini, as well as her own, to express condolences.

“We express our heartfelt condolences to His Excellency Bashar-al-Assad, government and the people of Syria after a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Syria and Türkiye that left thousands dead, wounded many people and caused destruction to infrastructure on Monday. It is our hope and prayer that the Almighty God will comfort the families, relatives and friends of those of who lost their lives during this time of mourning,” Dladla said.

IOL reported that rescuers in Türkiye and Syria battled frigid cold yesterday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by the earthquake.

It was reported that tremours inflicted more suffering on a border area, already plagued by conflict, left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm as international aid began to arrive.

But some extraordinary survival tales emerged, including a newborn baby pulled alive from a rubble in Syria, still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother who died in Monday's quake.
"We heard a voice while we were digging," Khalil al-Suwadi, a relative, told AFP.

"We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact) so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital."
The infant was the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest were killed in the rebel-held town of Jindayris.

The quake struck Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown number of people and potentially impacting millions.

Whole rows of buildings collapsed, leaving some of the heaviest devastation near the quake's epicentre between the Turkish cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.
The destruction led to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring yesterday a three-month state of emergency in 10 southeastern provinces.

Dozens of nations like the United States, China and the Gulf States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies began to arrive by airplane.
- Addditional reporting by IOL

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