Christiana Atsu Twasam, the twin sister of the late Black Stars player Christian Atsu, has announced plans for the establishment of the Christian Atsu Memorial Foundation.
The launch is set for March 2024, although the specific date has not been finalised. The foundation aims to honour Atsu’s legacy and perpetuate his philanthropic efforts, which endeared him to many beyond his achievements in football.
“We’ll launch the Christian Atsu Memorial Foundation in March to continue his charity work,” she told the Athletic.
Christiana confirmed that she had fronted her brother’s school project, which he was building for the less privileged before his passing.
“I have the baton to continue his work, but it’s not easy. I have to heal first,” says Christiana.
Regarding how she is holding up the loss, Christiana says his brother’s death has hit her harder than losing her mom and dad.
“I know grieving has five stages, but I don’t know where I am at the moment. Sometimes I’m in denial, sometimes acceptance; it fluctuates and I feel like I’m not progressing. I’ve lost my mom and my dad, but Christian’s leaving has had more impact on me than anything.
She added that on her birthday, which also happens to be Christian’s birthday, she changed scenery to escape her grief but she ended up breaking down.
“I went to Chester. But I broke down there. He was not there.”
Christian Atsu passed away following a tragic earthquake in Turkey. The former Black Stars player was trapped under the rubble for about three days before he was found lifeless on February 8, 2023.
One year after the tragic events in Turkey that sadly led to his passing, the wife, sister, and agent of the late Ghanaian footballer, Christian Atsu, have shared their experiences of coping with the loss of their beloved.
Christiana Twasam, Nana Sechere, and Marie Claire-Rupio, Christian Atsu’s surviving spouse, spoke to The Athletic, based in the UK, revealing the challenges they faced following his demise and how they have been dealing with the void left by his absence.
Christiana Twasam recounted the emotional turmoil caused by the uncertainty surrounding his disappearance and eventual death, highlighting the family’s relentless efforts to locate him.
“When I got there, I was devastated because I thought no one was going to survive in that building,” says Christiana, recalling the sight of the collapsed Renaissance Residence five-star block where Christian was. Hatayspor’s sporting director, Taner Savut, was also in the wreckage.
“We would call out his name,” says Christiana. “The rescuers would alert us if they sensed a life, then bring out the body and you’d be asked to verify if it was someone you knew. It broke my heart when you saw a body bag coming—i was going to be your own relative or not,” she says. “We were like a family around the fire in the evening. When someone verified their relative and broke down, it reminded you that one day you would too.”
Nana Sechere, the agent of Christian Atsu, spoke about a few moments when they received some hope that they were going to find him, hopefully alive.
“I spotted a shoe that looked very muchlike Christian’s through the legs of one of the search teams,” says Nana. “He threw it over to me and it was one of his Yeezy trainers. We found the other one from the pair soon after, and it told us we were looking in the right place.”
Following days of searching through the rubble in hopes of finding their loved one, known primarily for his charitable endeavours, the family received devastating news. While they were sleeping in tents and cars at night, a call came through confirming that a body had been found. Tragically, it turned out to be Atsu’s.
“Two officials took us to a body bag lying on the floor,” he says. “We had seen so many that even before they were opened, (we knew they) weren’t the right shape or size for Christian. But I could tell by the shape of it that it was Christian. We saw him and we broke down.”
It has been a year since the disappearance of Christian Atsu was announced following an earthquake in Turkey. The former Black Stars player was trapped under the rubble for about three days before he was found lifeless on February 8, 2023.
Marie-Claire Rupio, the wife of the late Black Stars player Christian Atsu, revealed to UK outlet The Athletic that she still sends WhatsApp messages to her deceased husband.
She admitted to questioning Atsu at times about why he is no longer alive and also mentioned messaging him when their children inquired about him.
Rupio, who is Portuguese, expressed that she does not have a specific coping mechanism and emphasised the mental challenges she faces, stating that she simply tries to navigate through each day.
“When people say, ‘How are you coping?’ I don’t cope. I just survive every day,” says Claire. “Mentally, you’re fine for a few days, maybe a week, but then lots of emotion comes.
“Sometimes I message Christian on WhatsApp; I just need to let it out,” she says. “‘Why are you not here?’ or maybe one of the kids needs him.”
Narrating how she received the news of her husband’s passing, she said Atsu’s agent, Nana Sechere, informed her at 3 a.m. while sobbing.
“It was around 3 am on Saturday, and when I saw Nana’s name come up on my phone.
“I picked up and he was just crying. He said, ‘I’m so sorry’, and he couldn’t say anything more.”
It has been a year since Christian Atsu passed away tragically due to an earthquake in Turkey. The former Black Stars player was trapped under rubble for approximately three days before rescuers found him lifeless on February 8, 2023. I knew: this is it.”
Claire was left traumatised and could not figure out how to tell the kids about their father’s passing on the spot.
“I needed to figure out how I was going to tell my kids that their dad was gone. It was terrible; there was so much going through my mind.”
She could not tell the kids right away, but she had to take them out for practice during the day and asked the coaches not to show signs that Atsu had passed.
“One of the coaches just came up to me and gave me a hug, but I told him just to be normal, as I hadn’t told them yet. They were awaiting good news when I sat them down and then I looked at them.
“I told them, ‘They have found your dad, but he didn’t make it’. It’s something I wish no parent had to do. It was heartbreaking; he was everything to them. Losing anyone is difficult, but we couldn’t even say goodbye.”
It has been a year since Christian Atsu passed away tragically due to an earthquake in Turkey. The former Black Stars player was trapped under rubble for approximately three days before rescuers found him lifeless on February 8, 2023.
Turkish team, Hatayspor, is making preparations for the upcoming 2023-24 football season after withdrawing from the Turkish Super Lig due to the devastating earthquake that struck the country.
The earthquake claimed the life of Christian Atsu, a beloved forward for Ghana’s national team, the Black Stars, along with over 50,000 other individuals.
After months of mourning and organizing themselves, Hatayspor made a return to action on Sunday, July 9, by playing a friendly match against Hull City, an English lower-tier side.
Prior to the game, the Hatayspor squad gathered for a team photo, with a club official holding up the jersey of the late Christian Atsu as a way to remember and pay tribute to the player.
The friendly match ended in a 1-1 draw, with neither team emerging as the winner. Despite the result, the event served as a meaningful occasion for Hatayspor to honor the memory of Christian Atsu and continue their footballing journey following the earthquake.
The English club, Hull City took the lead in the 67th minute through Will Jarvis before an equaliser from Unal Durmushan in the 83rd minute forced the match to end in a draw.
Hatayspor are expected to pay tribute toChristian Atsu, other players, and club officials who lost their lives in the earthquake when the new football season starts.
At the Northumberland Football League awards, Joshua Atsu Twasam, the eldest son of the late Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, was honored with the Player of the Year title.
Joshua Twasam had an impressive season playing for Team Gosforth Football Club, which led to him receiving this recognition at the conclusion of the campaign.
Demonstrating remarkable potential at a young age, the talented youngster is poised to follow in his father’s footsteps in the world of football.
His mother, Marie-Claire Rupio took to social media to celebrate her son, adding his father will be proud of him.
Meanwhile, the Rupio Family was also award the Tyler Garwood award for their enormous support for Joshua.
Earlier, Sports Brief reported that Juventus and Brazilian defender, Danilo has paid an emotional tribute to Ghana winger, Christian Atsu, who passed away following the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
Danilo and Atsu were teammates at Portuguese giants, FC Porto, breaking into the senior team in the same year.
Atsu sadly died after being trapped under rubble for 12 days, following the devastating disaster which claimed the lives of over 40,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
Atsu’s body arrive for burial
The remains of Christian Atsu have finally arrived in Ghana from Turkey following his passing due to a devastating earthquake on February 6.
The government, family, friends and former footballers were all at the Kotoko International Airport to receive the body ahead of the final burial rites.
In emotional scenes at the airport, many struggled to hold back tears while others wailed openly as the body was painfully brought out of a Turkish Airlines plane.
When former President John Dramani Mahama arrived at the burial site of late Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, there were raucous cheers for him.
Sharaf Mahama, a football player, and his father John Mahama were warmly welcomed by the crowd when they arrived.
Prior to taking his seat, John Mahama made introductions to the dignitaries in attendance as well as the family of Christian Atsu.
To pay their final respects to Atsu, Mahama and his son Sharaf also made their way past the coffin.
When the body of Christian Atsu was first discovered on February 16, 2023, John Mahama paid glowing tributes to him.
“We all held our breaths, and we prayed as we heard the miracles of people pulled out of the rubble. We prayed that ours would be one of those miracles, too. Alas, it was not to be. But in all, we give thanks to the almighty God for giving Atsu to us even for the short 31 years of his life.
“At this time, Lordina and I extend our deepest condolences to his family and the football fraternity in Ghana,” he shared on Facebook.
Christian Atsu passed in February after his lifeless body was recovered from the rubble of his collapsed apartment in Hatay following an earthquake that struck Turkey on February 6, 2023.
Theformer Ghanaian International in his 7 years international career played at the World Cup and help Ghana finish second in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, in which he won the best player of the tournament.
The former Chelsea winger’s body will be taken to the State House’s Forecourt for final rites before burial.
The appropriate attire for the event is black, according to the family’s announcement.
The memorial service will take place at the State House’s Forecourt on the day of the burial.
On March 19, 2023, his family will gather to discuss other crucial issues pertaining to the Christian Atsu.
President Akufo-Addo and other leading government officials are expected to attend the funeral.
Background
Ghanaians were thrown into a state of mourning on Saturday, February 18 after confirmation came that a body retrieved at a rescue site in Hatay, Turkey was that of Christian Atsu.
The rescue team had been frantically looking for Christian Atsu after he went missing following an earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria on February 6.
His body was subsequently flown to Ghana where a short ceremony was performed to welcome him into the country.
Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who was the leading government official at the ceremony said the government was going to collaborate with the family to give Atsu a befitting funeral.
H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, has stated that he will take all necessary steps to ensure that the late Black Stars winger Christian Atsu is given a respectable funeral.
The President made this statement on Monday, February 27, when he welcomed the player’s family and Ghana FA officials to the Jubilee House.
“I want the Chief of Staff to make sure we organise a state-assisted funeral for Christian Atsu depending on the date that you the members of the family and the GFA will select.
“Everything will be done from the point of view of the government to make sure that he is given a dignified exit. I owe it as my responsibility as President to make sure that that happens,” President Akufo-Addo stressed.
The Ghanaian President continued, “The decision as to when the funeral will take place depends on the family. That is the tradition in Ghana. Whatever the decision, whatever date you choose, you should know that the government will stand squarely behind you to make sure that we give him a fitting burial”.
Christian Atsu’s funeral has not yet been scheduled, but his family has set March 4 as the start of aone-week mourning period.
Christian Atsu’s body was discovered in a position that implies he was asleep when the earthquake struck, according to former Black Stars player Augustine Arhinful.
He claimed that a concrete block struck the deceased Ghanaian international forward, who was struck by the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey on February 6, 2023.
Atsu is believed to have died a day after the incident, according to hearsay, as Augustine Arhinful noted.
“When they found Atsu, according to what I heard, he had slept, and the concrete came to hit him. “By the first day, he was gone, and it took that long to find him,” Arhinful said on Max TV.
“When the earth shakes like that and you want to use excavators, you might kill someone who is not dead, so the rescue is a process to dig with your hands,” he added.
On Saturday, February 18, 2023, Christian Atsu’s body was recovered from the rubble of a building where he had been trapped for over 12 days.
Following the arrival of the body on Sunday, February 19, the family has disclosed that a one-week ceremony for the late footballer will be held on March 4, 2023.
Asamoah Gyan, a former captain of the Black Stars, thinks that Christian Atsu’s untimely departure will humanise football and help Ghanaians understand that, at the end of the day, athletes are just regular people.
According to Asamoah Gyan, people often forget that football players are regular people and hold them to a higher standard of moral behaviour due to the wealth and luxury that come with the profession.
In a Peace FM interview, the legendary footballers expressed their opinion that Atsu’s passing provides a chance for people to reconsider their opinions of footballers and stop giving them a bad rap.
After Atsu’s passing, according to Gyan, the criticism of football players should stop because Ghanaians now understand the sacrifice that players make.
“This is the time for some Ghanaians to respect our jobs. We’ve been criticised for all these years for taking the tax payer’s money, but they forget that every professional gets paid for what they do. They don’t know the risk we go through. People only see us on TV with our flashy lifestyle, but we put our lives on the line.
“This was someone people depended on; now he is gone. This is the time for people to respect us. The disrespect is too much. I’m sure people are now beginning to understand what we go through. Sometimes we play in war-torn countries. We deserve the pay we get. This is an example for everyone. I’m in pain, but it’s a natural disaster. We will do all we can to support the family,” he said.
Asamoah Gyan also paid tribute to Christian Atsu and hinted at plans to organize a farewell match for the former Newcastle star.
“I’m planning to organize a game to raise money for the family. I believe when that day comes, everyone including the stars will come on board to support us so that we can raise funds for the family of Christian Atsu,” he said.
Asamoah Gyan was a close pal of Atsu and has already visited the family to commiserate with them following the passing of their beloved.
A powerful earthquake struck South-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, killing more than 40,000 people as they slept and trapping many others in the early hours of Monday.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep.
Hours later, a second quake, which had a magnitude of 7.5, hit the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.
Hatayspor winger Christian Atsu was one of the club’s seven employees who lost their lives after the disaster.
Liberian President George Weah has expressed his condolences to the family of the late Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu.
In a statement, the President referred to Atsu as his “neighbour, small brother, and young friend” and remembered their personal interactions during Atsu’s early training in soccer.
“I knew him personally and his formative years in the game of soccer. I had the opportunity to interact with him in his early training… May your soul rest in peace, small brother,” he wrote.
🕊Liberian President George Weah expresses deep condolences on the loss Christian Atsu.
"I am deeply saddened to hear the devastating news of the passing of my neighbor, my small brother, and my young friend…"#JoySportspic.twitter.com/sUp9dwEJvt
The former footballer died following the Turkey Earthquake on February 6, 2023.
Weah has also donated $10,000 to Atsu’s family, which former Black Stars player Kwame Ayew presented on February 22, 2023.
As the only African footballer to have won the Ballon d’Or award, Weah’s gesture underscores his commitment to supporting fellow athletes and their loved ones in times of need.
In memory of the late Christian Atsu, the Ghana Football Association is considering retiring the number 7 jersey from the Black Stars.
Following the devastating earthquake that struck the Turkish city of Hatay on February 6, 2023, Atsu passed away.
On February 18, 2023, the dead body of Atsu was discovered among the debris of his destroyed apartment.
Linford Boadu, who also serves as the Chairman of the Eastern Regional Football Association (RFA), hinted that the Ghana FA intended to retire the number 7 jersey in memory of Atsu in an interview with Koforidua-based Bryt FM.
“It’s a sad situation. I wasn’t expecting Atsu to be staying in that big apartment like that, I was expecting him to be staying in a single apartment but I think there wasn’t stability after joining the club in Turkey”
“It was difficult to believe anybody can survive after that 45 seconds earthquake but we were hoping to find Atsu alive until news broke he has been found dead. He served the nation wholeheartedly, and at the short ceremony in receiving the body of Atsu, the vice President, Dr Bawumia disclosed government will be involved in giving him a befitting burial. That is a big plus, to me, Atsu deserves a befitting burial looking at how he served the nation.
“The Executive council of the FA is thinking about of a lot of things; some thinks the number 7 jersey must be retired in honour of Atsu but there should be a meeting to decide.”
Atsu had been trapped under rubble for over 11 days before his passing, with the earthquake claiming the lives of over 45,000 people.
During his career, Atsu played 65 matches for Ghana, scoring nine goals. Two of his most famous goals came in the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Egypt and in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal clash against Guinea, where he scored an absolutely breathtaking goal.
Desiree Ellis, the head coach of South Africa’s women’s national team, has responded to the passing ofGhanaian winger Christian Atsu.
She said that it is obvious that Ghana has lost a soldier who was loved by many people in her eulogy for the dead Black Stars forward.
“Our hearts go out to the families as well as to Ghana and Atsu’s family.” That’s the worst thing that you want to hear after so much time, but we pray for the families and pray that God gives them strength.
“And to Ghana, you have lost a soldier but know that he was loved by many,” the South Africa women’s national team coach said.
Christian Atsu passed away at the age of 31 after he was caught up in the wreckage of the Turkey earthquake.
Since he was confirmed dead on Saturday, people from around the world have extended their condolences to Ghana and the late player’s family.
Major earthquakes, like the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, have well-established causes. Despite this, they are still difficult to predict.
Although science and technology have advanced, it is still essentially impossible to predict exactly when and where earthquakes will occur.
“Earthquake prediction has always been kind of a holy grail,” said Wendy Bohon, an earthquake geologist who works as a communications strategist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “If we could tell people exactly when an earthquake was going to happen, we could take steps to mitigate against it. But Earth is a very complicated system.”
Part of the challenge is that the very nature of earthquakes makes them unpredictable events. When one does occur, it happens quickly.
“An earthquake is not like a slow-moving train that eventually picks up speed. It’s a sudden, accelerated event,” said Ben van der Pluijm, a professor of geology at the University of Michigan.
Earthquakes also tend to strike with little to no warning. Though scientists have investigated potential precursor events — everything from shifts in subsurface sounds to potential increases in a region’s seismic activity to changes in animal behavior — they have so far been unable to pinpoint any consistent signals that shaking is imminent.
The lack of any clear pattern makes it difficult to create reliable forecasts akin to weather reports.
Additionally, the processes that underpin earthquakes — the mashing and colliding of tectonic plates and the energy that builds up as a result — tend to play out over long periods of time. Scientists can, for instance, gauge that an earthquake will likely strike an area some time in the next 200 years, which may be specific on geologic timescales. On human time scales? Not so much.
“We have an incredibly good idea of where we expect earthquakes, and even the sizes that we can expect for large earthquakes in these areas, but that does not help us to narrow that down to a human timescale,” van der Pluijm said.
Still, there are ways to prepare. The USGS has developed an early-warning system called ShakeAlert that detects when a significant earthquake has occurred in California, Oregon and Washington and then issues radio, television and cellular alerts saying that strong shaking is imminent. In most cases, the alerts offer only a few seconds of warning, but that time can be extremely valuable, said van der Pluijm.
“Twenty seconds sounds very short, but it’s enough time for you to find a place under a desk to take cover,” he said. “It’s not a prediction, but ShakeAlert is a huge step forward because it can minimize the inevitable impact.”
One of the most important ways to prepare for an earthquake is to be aware of the risks, Bohon said. For policymakers, this means ensuring that critical infrastructure is protected in earthquake-prone areas.
“What we need to do is to make sure we understand what can happen and build to withstand that,” she said. “We have to make sure people know what to do. We have to make sure that our cities are able to be resilient in the face of those hazards so that we don’t just survive the earthquake, we can survive in the aftermath.”
Christian Atsu, who was trapped in the earthquake that struck Turkey on February 6, 2023, died at the age of 31. His body was discovered 12 days later.
Christian Atsu carried out a variety of charitable deeds up until his passing. A few prisoners’ release was funded by the former FC Porto player. He also contributed to a few orphanages and helped pay for many people’s medical expenses and school tuition.
Stephen Appiah, a former Newcastle player, paid tribute to the late Ghanaian international, saying he would be missed for his charitable work and for giving hope to the less fortunate.
Appiah said, “Aside from football, we know the love and charity work Atsu has been doing.”
“I think at this moment most of the guys on the street, I mean the hawkers on the street, all had their hope in Atsu, and now he has taken all the hope away,” he told Dan Kwaku Yeboah in an interview.
“We know there is a big funeral coming, and we will all support you with all we have,” he added.
Christian Atsu’s partner, Marie-Claire Rupio, has talked about how she is feeling after losing her husband.
The widow responds to those asking about her well-being in a voice recording shared by Accra-based Peace FM.
She admits her struggles with trying to gather herself, saying she misses her husband and is doing everything she can to be a strong mother for her children.
“Hey everyone, a lot of you are asking if I am okay now; I am not, but I am trying. I am trying to be strong. I have three kids, they need me. I don’t want to talk, eat, sleep, or do anything else. I just want to be there with him. But life goes on, even though it hurts. It hurts right here so much but I am trying and I will be strong for my kids. “I miss him so much,” she said in a tearful voice.
The mortal remains of the Ghana international who perished in the devastating earthquake in Turkey arrived home, to a solemn welcome.
The body was received by his family, a government delegation led by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, and a delegation from the Ghana Football Association (GFA).
Also present were members of the clergy, Ghana’s Ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton, members of the Ghana Supporters Union, other members of government, and members of the football fraternity, among others.
In the midst of the mourning for late Ghana winger Christian Atsu, former Black Stars defender John Paintsil has blasted the GFA administration.
The Ghana FA, along with many others who were connected to the player, released a statement to express their condolences after the player’s body was found beneath the rubble of the Turkey earthquake on Saturday.
“You snubbed him and kicked him out of your Black Stars at age 31. Atsu has been struggling to get a permanent stay in a club since the snub.
“We all know the value and respect your club gives you when you play for your nation.”
“Don’t pretend you loved him because you don’t at all,” John Paintsil told Original FM in an interview.
Meanwhile, the remains of Christian Atsu have arrived in Ghana from Turkey. His family is set to make the necessary arrangements for his burial.
Christian Atsu‘s last moments with his team, Hatayspor, were happy and exciting. The Ghanaian international, who tragically died following the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, scored the team’s final goal.
Ghanaian winger Christian Atsu was spotted having fun with his Hatayspor teammates before the earthquake in Turkey.
Ghana winger Christian Atsu was spotted having fun with his Hatayspor teammates before the earthquake in Turkey. Credit: @addojunr Source: Twitter
In a video shared on social media, Atsu is seen having fun with his teammates as they hyped him up, following his sensational free kick against Kasimpasa. The ever-smiling player is also seen practicing a dance move with one of his teammates while the others chant his name.
A few hours after the players left camp for their various destinations, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Hatay region in Turkey and the northern part of Syria, leaving over 40,000 people dead. Atsu was initially reported to be trapped under rubble but after 12 days of searching and many prayers of hope, he was found dead.
The 31-year-old’s passing has left the footballing world in shock, with many sending in their tributes as the club arranged with Turkish authorities for his body to be transported to Ghana for burial. Atsu enjoyed a stellar career in Europe, playing for FC Porto, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Bournemouth and Everton before a brief time in Saudi Arabia.
The government, family, friends and former footballers were all at the Kotoko International Airport to receive the body ahead of the final rites. Many were unable to hold back tears and wails of anguish, as the late footballer’s body was transported off a Turkish Airlines aircraft. Danilo pays tribute to Atsu Juventus and Brazilian defender, Danilo paid Atsu emotional tribute, after the Ghanaian passed away following theTurkey-Syria earthquake.
The two players were teammates at Portuguese giants, FC Porto, breaking into the senior team in the same year. Atsu was killed after being trapped under rubble, following the disaster which claimed the lives of over 40,000 people.
When Ghana faced Lesotho in 2012, Kwasi Appiah gave Christian Atsu his Black Stars debut at the age of 20.
Atsu scored during Ghana’s 7-0 victory over the opposition at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.
Disgusted Kwesi Appiah praised Atsu for keeping his word after the player passed away.
“It’s really, really sad that Atsu is no more. May his soul rest in peace, and my condolences go to the family as well as all of us Ghanaians. When he heard that there had been an earthquake in Turkey, we were all praying that he would be found, but God knows best. When you give him a role on the field, he will do his best to make you, the coach, proud… I used to tell my players to go onto the field and show that they deserved to be on the team. Atsu is one of the players who did not appear in front of me. On the pitch, he was humble and always laughing. The old and new players used to play with him every time. Apart from that, in his social life, we all knew how he helped the less privileged. “That is all I can say about Atsu,” he told Oman FM.
A high-magnitude earthquake struck in Hatay, Turkey on February 6, 2023, which led to Atsu being trapped in his destroyed apartment for over a week.
His body was discovered lifeless on February 18 and was added to the death toll of over 40,000 after the earthquake.
The deceased winger, who made 60 appearances for Ghana, scored 10 goals in his 11-year international career.
His last appearance came in 2019 when he played in the 2019 African Cup of Nations.
A state funeral will be held for thelate Christian Atsu, according to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The late Ghanaian international football player perished tragically on February 6 as a result of a powerful earthquake that shook parts of Turkey and Syria.
On the evening of February 19, during a brief ceremony to receive the late Atsu’s remains from Turkey, Dr. Bawumia declared that the nation had lost an accomplished son who would be missed.
“It is a very sad day that we are here to receive the remains of our brother, Christian Atsu. The earthquake that struck Turkey was devastating, and we prayed every day that passed for our brother to be found, but when he was found, he was no more,” he said.
“He was much loved, and we will surely miss him.” “It is a very painful loss, and we pray that the soul of our brother rests in the bosom of our maker,” he added.
“We extend our sincere condolences to the entire family for their loss, and I would like to say that the state will be fully involved with the family in providing him a befitting burial,” Bawumia declared.
Local media reported that a Syrian family of seven, which included five children, perished in a fire that broke out in the Turkish home they had relocated to following last week’s earthquake.
The single-story home, where 14 people resided, caught fire on Friday, according to a written statement from the Konya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, according to the state-owned Anadolu Agency in Turkey. According to the report, seven accident victims were being treated.
According to Anadolu, just a few days prior, the family had relocated from the southeast Turkish city of Nurdagi in Gaziantep province to the central region of Konya.
“The necessary investigations were carried out at the scene and a committee of experts was appointed,” the statement said.
“We saw the fire but we could not intervene. A girl was rescued from the window,” resident Muhsin Cakir told Anadolu.
The five children who died were aged between four and 13, Anadolu said. Turkey is home to nearly four million Syrians.
Many of them live in southeastern regions devastated by last week’s disaster. The death toll from the quakes has surpassed 43,000 across southeastern Turkey and Syria.
Gaziantep, one of southern Turkey’s big cities, has a population of almost two million, and nearly one-third of them are Syrian refugees who fled the war in the Arab country that started in 2011.
On Thursday, the United Nations appealed for more than $1bn in funds for the earthquake relief operation in Turkey, just two days after an appeal for $400m for quake-hit Syria.
Since the earthquakes last week, there have been approximately 4,700 aftershocks, or one every four minutes, according to Orhan Tatar,general director of earthquake and risk reduction at the nation’s disaster agency.
“Most of these aftershocks are palpable,” Tatar said, adding that about 40 of them were above magnitude 4.
Sam Adekugbe, a Canadian football player who plays forTurkish club Hatayspor, has transferred to Galatasaray on loan after surviving last week’s significant earthquakes in southern Turkey.
The Canadian defender will play for Galatasaray for the remainder of the 2022–23 campaign, according to a statement from Galatasaray. Both clubs approved of Adekugbe’s temporary transfer to the Istanbul club, the statement said.
For a €1 million ($1.06 million) transfer fee, Galatasaray can make the agreement permanent.
Adekugbe, who appeared upset, expressed his gratitude to both teams in an emotional English-language video posted on Galatasaray’s Twitter page. He also urged people to help those who had been affected by the disaster more.
“I’m thankful to Hatay and Galatasaray for giving me this opportunity. But of course, we understand the situation that has occurred in the last week or so,” he said. Hatay, where Hatayspor is based, is one of the worst-affected provinces of Turkey.
“People need our help—in any way we can,” Adekugbe said. “We can help with money, we can help with donations, we can help in any way, but it is important that we help and that we stay together.”
Sam Adekugbe: “Önemli olan yardım edip kenetlenmemiz çünkü biliyoruz ki biz beraberken daha güçlüyüz.”
Hayatını kaybeden vatandaşlarımızı saygıyla anıyoruz, kalbimizdesiniz! ∞
ℹ️ Nef Stadyumu’ndaki yardım merkezimizde, afet bölgesine yapacağınız yardımlarınızı bekliyoruz. ❤️🤍 pic.twitter.com/ex2apxCfg9
Actor and TV show host Akwasi Boadi, popularly known as Akrobeto, has disclosed that ‘missing’ footballer Christian Atsu once gifted him €800.
Speaking on his show, The Real News on UTV, he stated that at the time, he had never met the footballer.
Akrobeto said Atsu gave him the money through actor Kwaku Manu as appreciation for the work he does on his show.
He stated that the footballer valued what he did on The Real News, stating that he had been told it was a source of entertainment for him while he played abroad.
Akrobeto said that he was taken aback by the kindness Atsu showed him in spite of not having a personal relationship with the footballer.
Akrobeto stated that following the news of the earthquake in Turkey where Atsu plies his talent, he cannot help but imagine what Atsu went through during the incident.
He called on Ghanaians to constantly pray for the footballer while efforts are ongoing to find him.
Background
A powerful earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, killing and trapping many others in the early hours of Monday, February 6.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep.
Hours later, a second quake, which had a magnitude of 7.5, hit the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.
A New York Times report indicates that the death toll has risen to more than 40,000 in both Turkey and Syria even as rescue teams searched for any remaining survivors in the rubble.
There were a few glimmers of hope on Tuesday after crews in Turkey defied the odds by digging nine survivors out of the rubble.
Meanwhile, as search teams continue to rescue trapped survivors, Christian Atsu is yet to be found.
On Tuesday, Christian Atsu’s agent, Nana Sechere, cried out for more support in the search for the player after finding his personal belongings at his home.
This was after the agent made a trip to Hatay and the residence of Atsu, where the player’s shoes have been found.
Sechere, following the latest developments, has called for more resources to aid in the search for the former Chelsea and Newcastle United winger.
“It has been 9 days since the earthquake and we still have not located Christian. I am at the quake site in Hatay with Christian’s family. The scenes are unimaginable and our hearts are broken for all the people affected,” he wrote in a social media post.
An aid convoy has arrived in earthquake-stricken northwest Syria from the eastern Deir al-Zor province, showing how aid can cross a frontline in a country’s ongoing civil war.
According to the news agency, Syrian Arab tribes had organised it. As a result of the civil war in their country, many Syrians who were displaced from Deir al-Zor to the rebel-held northwest are members of powerful Arab tribes.
According to organiser Hamoud Saleh al-Darjah, more aid was being gathered. He told Reuters that the aid would be distributed equally throughout the northern region.
Following the tragic earthquakes on February 6, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich announced that he is aiding a school for orphans in Turkey.
Popovich expressed his sympathy and condolences to those impacted by the disaster, which has claimed the lives of over 35,000 people in Turkey and over 5,800 in Syria, in a video shared on Twitter. He declared that he would contribute money to the Darussafaka Schools in Istanbul, which have housed and educated orphans since 1863 and are supported by donations.
“The one thing that I would ask.” If there is anybody capable of helping monetarily, find a way to do that,” the 74-year-old said, adding that he had lived for a year in Diyarbakir and travelled to places like Gaziantep while he was young.
Popovich has been the Spurs’ head coach since 1996 and has won the NBA championship five times: in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014. He also coached the US men’s national team to a gold medal at the 2020Tokyo Olympics.
Gregg Popovich has announced his support for Turkey in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that recently struck the country.
He has pledged to donate to Darüşşafaka, an institution that has been providing education opportunities to orphaned children for over a century. pic.twitter.com/dyAs3jBhME
A few days after Anadolu news agency reported that a border gate between Turkey and Armenia had been opened for the first time in 35 years to allow aid for victims, Mirzoyan’s visit, in which she is scheduled to meet with her Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, was announced.
Since the two nations have been at odds over the 1.5 million people Armenia claims were killed in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern Turkey, Ankara has had no diplomatic or business relations with Armenia.
Killing, according to Armenia, is genocide. That label has been rejected by Turkey.
Last year, Turkish and Armenian leaders met informally at a European summit, which followed a foreign ministers meeting. Mirzoyan also intends to visit Armenian rescue teams working in Turkey during the trip, according to Armenia’s foreign ministry.
The Armenian FM has arrived in Ankara, Turkey.
FM Mirzoyan will meet Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu during the visit.
FM Mirzoyan’s delegation includes VS of Parliament and the Special Representative of Armenia in the negotiations for normalization with Turkey Ruben Rubinyan. pic.twitter.com/OiMm9sY45z
10,000 mobile homes that were used as accommodations during the 2022 World Cup are being sent by Qatar to earthquake-affected regions in Turkey and Syria.
Two earthquakes that shook the two nations a week ago are thought to have killed close to 40,000 people.
Aid organisations have warned that the number of homeless people could be much higher in Syria, where more than a million people have been rendered homeless.
Rescue efforts in the two nations are starting to slow down.
The Qatari Fund for Development, a government body responsible for international development and foreign aid, tweeted a video of the first batch of accommodations being sent to affected areas.
A Qatari official said: “The plans of the 2022 World Cup always intended for such temporary accommodations to be donated.
“However, in view of the urgent needs in Turkey and Syria, we have taken the decision to ship our cabins and caravans to the region, providing much needed and immediate support to the people of Turkey and Syria.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed al-Assad’s decision to open the two crossing points of Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid from Turkey to rebel-held parts of northwest Syria.
“As the toll of the February 6 earthquake continues to mount, delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies, and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency,” Guterres said in a statement.
“Opening these crossing points, along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals, and easing travel between hubs, will allow more aid to go in faster,” he added.
Currently, the UN has only been allowed to deliver aid to the northwest Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab al-Hawa, at Syrian allyRussia’s insistence.
Experts say that given the amount of time that has passed and the severity of the building collapses, the window for rescues has nearly closed as the desperate searches for earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria enter their final hours.
According to Eduardo Reinoso Angulo, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Engineering, the chances of discovering survivors are “very, very small now.”
The odds weren’t great to begin with, according to David Alexander, a professor of emergency planning and management at University College London.
He claimed that many of the structures were constructed so poorly that they crumbled into tiny fragments, leaving very few spaces big enough for people to survive.
“If a frame building of some kind goes over, generally speaking we do find open spaces in a heap of rubble where we can tunnel in,“ Alexander said. “Looking at some of these photographs from Turkey and from Syria, there just aren’t the spaces.”
Winter conditions have also reduced the window for survival.
In the cold, the body shivers to keep warm, but that burns a lot of calories, meaning that people who are also deprived of food will die more quickly, said Dr Stephanie Lareau, a professor of emergency medicine atVirginia Tech in the United States.
Russian’s defence ministry says, 60 units of specialised military gear and more than300 Russian troops are assisting Syria in its response to the earthquakes last week.
“Servicemen of the Russian group of forces continue to carry out activities to clear rubble and eliminate the consequences of earthquakes,” the defence ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, referring to Russian forces stationed in Syria.
“More than 300 servicemen and 60 units of military and special equipment have been involved in the work.”
Food packages and disinfectants as well as other essentials had also been delivered to humanitarian aid points in the northwestern city of Aleppo, the ministry added.
Marie-Claire Rupio, the wife of Ghanaian player, Christian Atsu has called on the governments of Turkey and the United Kingdom to deploy more personnel and equipment to help rescue her husband and other people trapped in the rubble of buildings following an earthquake in Turkey.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Marie-Claire Rupio urged authorities in Turkey and the UK to put in more effort in rescuing people who are still under the rubble at the Renaissance Residence.
According to her, time is running out and failure on the part of authorities to send in more resources could lead to more casualties.
“I will appeal for the Hatayaspor club and the Turkish authorities and the British government to send the equipment to get the people out who are still trapped in the rubble. Especially for my husband and the father of my children as well because they need the equipment to get them out. They can’t get that deep without the equipment and time is running out,” she stated.
Christian Atsu and some members of his club Hatayaspor got trapped in the earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria on Monday, February 6, 2023.
Although some of the victims of the earthquake have been found and rescued, Atsu is yet to be found contrary to earlier reports that the former Newcastle player had been rescued and taken to hospital.
As of Monday 2023, CNN reports that 34,000 people have died in the wreckage in both Turkey and Syria.
The tents are so close to the border wall between Syria and Turkey, they are almost touching it.
Those living here on the Syrian side may have been displaced by the country’s more than decade-old civil war. But they could also be survivors of the earthquake. Catastrophes overlap in Syria.
The earthquake, untroubled by international borders, has brought havoc to both countries. But the international relief effort has been thwarted by checkpoints. In southern Turkey, thousands of rescue workers with heavy lifting gear, paramedics and sniffer dogs have jammed the streets, and are still working to find survivors. In this part of opposition-held north-west Syria, none of this is going on.
I had just crossed the border from four days in the city of Antakya, Turkey, where the aid response is a cacophony – ambulance sirens blare all night long, dozens of earth movers roar and rip apart concrete 24 hours a day. Among the olive groves in the village of Bsania, in Syria’s Idlib province, there’s mostly silence.
The homes in this border area were newly built. Now more than 100 have gone, turned to aggregate and a ghostly white dust which gusts across the farmland. As I climb over the chalky remains of the village, I spot a gap in the ruin. Inside, a pink-tiled bathroom sits perfectly preserved.
The earthquake swallowed Abu Ala’s home, and claimed the lives of two of his children.
Image caption,The town of Bsania was a small but thriving community
“The bedroom is there, that’s my house,” he says, pointing to pile of rubble. “My wife, daughter and I were sleeping here – Wala’, the 15-year-old girl, was at the edge of the room towards the balcony. A bulldozer was able to find her, [so] I took her and buried her.”
In the dark, he and his wife clung to olive trees as aftershocks rocked the hillside.
The Syrian Civil Defence Force – also known as the White Helmets – which operates in opposition-held areas, did what they could with pickaxes and crowbars. The rescuers, who receive funding from the British government, lack modern rescue equipment.
Abu Ala’ breaks down when he describes the search for his missing 13-year-old son, Ala’. “We kept digging until evening the next day. May God give strength to those men. They went through hell to dig my boy up.”
A deeply religious man, he is now bereft. “What am I going to do?” he asks. “There are no tents, no aid, nothing. We’ve received nothing but God’s mercy until now. And I’m here left to roam the streets.”
As we leave, he asks me if I have a tent. But we have nothing to give him.
I meet up with the White Helmets, expecting to find them looking for survivors. But it is too late. Ismail al Abdullah, is weary from effort, and what he describes as the world’s disregard for the Syrian people. He says the international community has blood on its hands.
“We stopped looking for survivors after more than 120 hours passed,” he says. “We tried our best to save our people, but we couldn’t. No-one listened to us.
“From the first hour we called for urgent action, for urgent help. No-one responded. They were just saying, ‘We are with you’, nothing else. We said, we need equipment. No-one responded.”
Image caption,In the town of Harem, children have been removing rubble
Apart from a few Spanish doctors, no international aid teams have reached this part of Syria. It is an enclave of resistance from Bashar al-Assad’s rule. Under Turkish protection, it is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group that was once affiliated to al-Qaeda. The group has cut those links, but almost all governments have no relations with them. For our entire time in Syria, armed men, who didn’t want to be filmed, accompanied us and stood at a distance.
More than a decade into Syria’s stalled civil war, the 1.7m people who live in this area continue to oppose President Assad’s rule. They live in makeshift camps and newly built shelters. Most have been displaced more than once, so life here was already very hard before the earthquake.
The international help that reaches this part of Syria is tiny. Many of the earthquake victims were taken to the Bab al-Hawa hospital, which is supported by the Syrian American Medical Society. They treated 350 patients in the immediate aftermath, general surgeon Dr Farouk al Omar tells me, all with only one ultrasound.
When I ask him about international aid, he shakes his head, and laughs. “We cannot talk more about this topic. We spoke about that a lot. And nothing happened. Even in a normal situation, we don’t have enough medical staff. And just imagine what it’s like in this catastrophe after earthquake,” he says.
At the end of the corridor, a tiny baby lies in an incubator. Mohammad Ghayyath Rajab’s skull is bruised and bandaged, and his small chest rises and falls thanks to a respirator. Doctors can’t be sure, but they think he’s around three months old. Both of his parents were killed in the earthquake, and a neighbour found him crying alone in the dark in the rubble of his home.
In the town of Harem, Fadel Ghadab lost his aunt and cousin.
“How is it possible that the UN has sent a mere 14 trucks worth of aid?” he asks. “We’ve received nothing here. People are in the streets.”
More aid has made it into Syria, but not much and it is too little, too late.
In the absence of international rescue teams in Harem, children remove rubble. A man and two boys use a car-jack to prize apart the collapsed remains of a building, carefully salvaging animal feed onto a blanket. Life isn’t cheaper in Syria, but it is more precarious.
The day is ending and I have to leave. I cross the border back into Turkey and soon get stuck in a traffic jam or ambulances, construction equipment – the gridlock of a national and international aid response.
My phone pings with a message from a Turkish rescuer telling me his team found a woman alive after 132 hours buried under her home. Behind me in Syria, as darkness falls, there is only silence.
Authorities have found Christian Atsu‘s apartment following the deadly earthquake that struck 10 Turkish districts, including Hatay. Atsu plays football for Hatayspor.
The Renaissance Residence, where Christian and the team’s sporting director Taner Savut lived, was among the buildings that were destroyed by the quake.
As the search and rescue efforts continue, Christian’s brother Isaac Twasam, their manager Murat Uzunmehmet, and Nana Sechre are waiting for news at the site of the collapsed building.
The authorities have confirmed that Christian was on the ninth floor when the earthquake struck, and the building was destroyed.
Miners are working tirelessly to reach the ninth floor, where Christian is believed to be trapped, from the eighth floor block.
The search and rescue teams are facing a challenging task, but their determination and bravery give hope to those who are waiting for news.
The rescue teams are working non-stop to bring those who may be trapped to safety. The discovery of Christian’s apartment has renewed hope for a positive outcome, and everyone is praying for the best.
On Sunday, the number of fatalities from the significant earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria reached 33,000. (February 12). The United Nations (UN) has warned that the final number could double. Since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the region on Monday, 29,605 people have died in Turkey, while 3,574 people have died in Syria, according to officials and medical personnel.
The confirmed total now stands at 33,179.
The UN expressed its disappointment on Sunday over the failure to deliver urgently required aid to Syria’s war-torn regions.
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said that much more was required for the millions of people whose homes had been destroyed, despite the fact that a convoy carrying supplies for northwest Syria had arrived via Turkey.
“We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria.” They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,” Griffiths said on Twitter.
At the #Türkiye–#Syria border today. We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived. My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can. That’s my focus now.
In Syria, years of conflict have all but destroyed the healthcare system. Supplies have been slow to arrive in Syria.
The UN convoy of ten trucks crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent, carrying shelter kits including plastic sheeting, ropes and screws and nails, as well as blankets, mattresses and carpets.
Turkish authorities have arrested the contractor for the Rönesans Residence, which was destroyed in the earthquake that struck southeast Turkey on February 6, 2023,according to reports.
Mehmet Yaşar Coşkun was detained at the Istanbul airport while attempting to leave the country.
The 12-story Rönesans Residence, which has 250 apartments and was completed in 2013 in Hatay’s Antakya district, collapsed following the earthquake trapping about a thousand residents including Ghanaian footballer, Christian Atsu.
Some 170 Turkish lawyers filed a joint criminal complaint against the contractors of the building demanding an investigation into its collapse.
The contractor was subsequently detained at the airport on Friday, February 10, 2023, on the orders public prosecutors.
Reports say Yaşar Coşkun at the time of his arrest was leaving the country with his destination being Montenegro.
He was said to be carrying an unspecified cash amount at the time of his arrest.
He was taken to the police station later, where he was interrogated.
Afterwards, he was referred to a court which ordered that he be remanded pending trial.
Christian Atsu trapped under earthquake rubble
On Monday, February 6, 2023, Christian Atsu was reported to have been trapped under earthquake rubble alongside his club Hatayspor’s technical director, Taner Savut, following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit south-central Turkey and Syria.
A day later, another story broke that the former Chelsea winger had been pulled out of the debris, but Taner Savut was still missing.
However, the report about Atsu’s discovery was later retold after Hatayspor Board Member Mustafa Ozat stated that the information was false and admitted to contributing to misinformation.
The conflicting reports about the player’s whereabouts became a major source of concern, prompting his agent, Nana Sechere, to go to the grounds and investigate for himself.
Turkish journalist Yaz Sabuncuolu claims Nana Sechere and his entourage have touched down in Turkey and have been to the place Atsu was staying before the earthquake alongside some friends of Taner Savut.
Meanwhile, GhanaWeb has sighted video footage of the moment security officials accosted Mehmet Yaşar Coşkun at the Istanbul airport.
Despite some miraculous rescues, the number of fatalities from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria has surpassed 28,000, and the prospect of finding many more survivors is dwindling.
Search efforts were suspended on Saturday due to clashes between unnamed groups, according to German rescuers and the Austrian army.
According to one rescuer, security is predicted to deteriorate as food supplies get low.
The president of Turkey declared that he would use his emergency powers to punish lawbreakers.
An Austrian army spokesperson said early on Saturday that clashes between unidentified groups in the Hatay province had left dozens of personnel from the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit seeking shelter in a base camp with other international organisations.
“There is increasing aggression between factions in Turkey,” Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Kugelweis said in a statement. “The chances of saving a life bears no reasonable relation to the safety risk.”
Hours after Austria paused its rescue efforts, the country’s ministry of defence said that the Turkish army had stepped in to offer protection, allowing the rescue operations to resume.
The German branch of the search and rescue group ISAR and Germany’s Federal Agency for Technical Relief (TSW) also suspended operations, citing security concerns.
“There are more and more reports of clashes between different factions, shots have also been fired,” said ISAR spokesperson Stefan Heine.
Steven Bayer, operations manager of Isar, said he expected security to worsen as food, water, and hope become more scarce.
“We are watching the security situation very closely as it develops,” he said.
The Vice President of Turkey, Fuat Oktay announced on Saturday the death toll in Turkey has risen to 24,617.
While Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hasn’t commented on the reported unrest in Hatay, he did reiterate on Saturday that the government would take action against those involved in crimes in the region.
“We’ve declared a state of emergency,” Mr Erdogan said during a visit to the disaster zone today. “It means that, from now on, the people who are involved in looting or kidnapping should know that the state’s firm hand is on their backs.”
State media reported on Saturday that 48 people had been arrested for looting, according to AFP. Turkish state media reported several guns were seized, along with cash, jewellery and bank cards.
A 26-year-old man searching for a work colleague in a collapsed building in Antakya told Reuters: “People were smashing the windows and fences of shops and cars.”
Turkish police have also reportedly detained 12 people over collapsed buildings in the provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa. They included contractors, according to the DHA news agency.
There are also expected to be more arrests after Mr Oktay told reporters late Saturday that prosecutors issued 113 arrest warrants over the buildings.
At least 6,000 buildings collapsed in Turkey, raising questions about if the large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government could have done more to save lives.
With elections looming, the president’s future is on the line after spending 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity going unheeded.
Mr Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but he appeared to blame fate on a visit to one disaster zone: “Such things have always happened. It’s part of destiny’s plan.”
Miraculous rescues after 100 hours under rubble
Among those rescued on Saturday were a family of five pulled from the rubble in Turkey’s Gaziantep province.
AP news agency reported the parents, two daughters and son were brought to safety after five days under their collapsed home, to cries of “God is great”.
The same outlet reported that a seven-year-old girl was pulled from the debris in the province of Hatay after almost 132 hours under the rubble.
The BBC has also published footage of the remarkable rescue of two sisters in Antakya, southern Turkey, from Wednesday.
Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya
The quake was described as the “worst event in 100 years in this region” by the United Nations aid chief, who was in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday.
“I think it’s the worst natural disaster that I’ve ever seen and it’s also the most extraordinary international response,” Martin Griffiths told the BBC’s Lyse Doucet in Turkey.
“We have more than a hundred countries who have sent people here so there’s been incredible response but there’s a need for it,” he added.
Mr Griffiths has called for regional politics to be put aside in the face of the disaster – and there are some signs that this is happening.
And there are reports that the Syrian government has agreed to let UN aid into areas controlled by opposition groups, with whom they have been engaged in a bitter civil war since 2011.
The death toll in Syria from the earthquake now stands at more than 3,500, according to AFP, but new figures have not been published since Friday.
There has been criticism that the international effort to send aid to Syria has not been fast enough.
Ismail al Abdullah of the Syrian Civil Defence Force, or White Helmets, which operates in rebel-held areas, told the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville that the organisation had stopped searching for survivors.
The international community has “blood on its hands,” he said. “We needed rescue equipment that never came.”
Sivanka Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told AlJazeera that as many 5.3 million Syrians may be homeless following the quake.
“That is a huge number, and it comes from a population that is already experiencing mass displacement,” he said.
After being caught up in the Turkey earthquake, a heartbroken family travelling from theUK for a funeral found themselves in the midst of a catastrophe.
After her father passed away on Tuesday, January 31, Eylem Yildiz and three relatives travelled to Besni for the ceremony on Wednesday.
Busra Yildiz, the daughter who resides in Cardiff, remained in the UK to take care of her sisters.
The mother, aunt, uncle, and 1-year-old cousin of Busra were scheduled to arrive last week.
But bad weather meant their journey home was delayed.
When two earthquakes struck on Monday, the apartment block they were staying in was reduced to rubble.
Eylem has yet to be found, while Busra’s grandmother, Saadet Onder, and three other family members from Turkey are also missing.
Her aunt Emine Onder-Nizan, her uncle Engin Onder-Nizan and her cousin Mete Onder-Nizan, who all travelled from the UK, have been found.
Image caption, Busra’s boyfriend Sam Thomas dubbed the disaster “carnage”
The death toll from the disaster is now approaching 24,000.
The carnage unfolded when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Gaziantep, and was followed by multiple aftershocks.
One, almost as large as the first, measured 7.5 magnitudes.
Busra, who was born in Besni and brought up in Swindon, travelled to Turkey on Monday to help.
The magnitude of the earthquake was classified as “major” on the official magnitude scale Mr Thomas, from Bridgend, said: “On Tuesday, there were signs of life; they think they heard their grandmother because there were noises coming from the building.
“They were able to speak to the aunt on Wednesday. Then everything went quiet.
The 24-year-old said signs of life had been detected with heat-sensitive cameras.
A lack of machinery meant people were digging through rubble by hand.
He called the situation “complete carnage.”
Image caption, Sam Thomas describes his girlfriend Busra as “so brave”
Mr Thomas, a web designer, said: “It’s just heartbreaking to know they can hear people in there.
“This week, Busra witnessed childhood friends and family being dragged out dead.
“She has seen dead children. I cannot imagine what she is feeling like.”
The UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee’s raised £32.9 million on its first day, including $5 million matched by the UK government, for Turkey and Syria.
Busra, 24, has been sleeping in a “fabricated pod”. Her boyfriend said: “She is so strong, I don’t know how she does it.”
He praised his girlfriend for being “so brave”.
“I am praying they are all alive and hoping they will all come out,” Mr Thomas said.
“I really want my loved ones out of that building.
“I believe in my heart of hearts they are going to be found and they are going to be okay.
“They are all religious people and strong women. It is breaking my heart they are being put through this.”
Brazil and Switzerland have called for the UN Security Council to meet next week to discuss its response to the situation in Syria, which was also affected.
Mr Thomas said he was feeling “pretty horrendous”, and he is being supported by friends and family.
“This has been the worst five days of my life, it feels like one big day,” he said.
“It’s not my blood family, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to have my mom trapped there in a building.”
The most devastating earthquake to strike Turkey since 1939 has sparked lot of controversy over whether such a serious tragedy could have been prevented and whetherPresident Erdogan’sadministration could have done more to save lives.
After 20 years in power, he is facing elections, and despite his repeated calls for national unity, no one has listened.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged that the response fell short, but he seemed to put the blame for fate on a trip to one disaster area: “Such occurrences have always been common. It’s part of the plan of destiny.”
Turkey has earthquake building regulations that date back more than 80 years and is located on two fault lines. But the two earthquakes on Monday were much more powerful than anything recorded since 1939. The initial quake’s registered magnitude 7.8 at 04:17, followed by another of 7.5 dozens of miles away.
Delayed search and rescue
It required a massive rescue operation spread across 10 of Turkey’s 81 provinces.
But it took time for the response to build and some villages could not be reached for days. More than 30,000 people from the professional and voluntary sector eventually arrived, along with teams from many other countries.
More than 6,000 buildings collapsed and workers from Turkey’s Afad disaster authority were themselves caught up in the earthquakes.
Those initial hours were critical but roads were damaged and search and rescue teams struggled to get through until day two or day three.
Turkey has more experience of earthquakes than almost any other country but the founder of the main volunteer rescue group believes this time, politics got in the way.
After the last major earthquake in August 1999, it was the armed forces who led the operation, but the Erdogan government has sought to curb their power in Turkish society.
Image caption,Volunteers from the Akut foundation have joined the government’s main disaster agency in searching for survivors
“All over the world, the most organised and logistically powerful organisations are the armed forces; they have enormous means in their hands,” said the head of Akut foundation, Nasuh Mahruki. “So you have to use this in a disaster.”
The potential rescue effort was now far bigger than in 1999, Mr Mahruki said, but with the military left out of the planning it had to wait for an order from the government: “This created a delay in the start of rescue and search operations.”
President Erdogan has accepted that search efforts were not as fast as the government wanted, despite Turkey having the “largest search and rescue team in the world right now”.
‘I warned them’
For years, Turks have been warned of the potential of a big earthquake, but few expected it to be along the East Anatolian fault, which stretches across south-eastern Turkey, because most of the larger tremors have hit the fault in the north.
When a quake in January 2020 hit Elazig, north-east of Monday’s disaster zone, geological engineer Prof Naci Gorur of Istanbul Technical University realised the risk. He even predicted a later quake north of Adiyaman and the city of Kahramanmaras.
“I warned the local governments, governors, and the central government. I said: ‘Please take action to make your cities ready for an earthquake.’ As we cannot stop them, we have to diminish the damage created by them.”
One of Turkey’s foremost earthquake engineering specialists, Prof Mustafa Erdik, believes the dramatic loss of life was down to building codes not being followed, and he blames ignorance and ineptitude in the building industry.
“We allow for damage but not this type of damage – with floors being piled on top of each other like pancakes,” he told the BBC. “That should have been prevented and that creates the kind of casualties we have seen.”
Image caption,An international rescue team looks at the concrete floors of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras
Under Turkish regulations updated in 2018, high-quality concrete has to be reinforced with ribbed, steel bars. Vertical columns and horizontal beams have to be able to absorb the impact of tremors.
“There should be adhesion between the concrete and steel bars, and there should also be adequate transfer reinforcement in the columns,” explained Prof. Erdik.
Had all the regulations been followed, the columns would have survived intact and the damage would have been confined to the beams, he believes. Instead the columns gave way and the floors collapsed on top of each other, causing heavy casualties.
The justice minister has said anyone found to have been negligent or at fault will be brought to justice.
Quake tax mystery
Critics such as opposition CHP party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu argue that after 20 years in power, President Erdogan’s government has not “prepared the country for the earthquakes.”
One big question is what happened to the large sums collected through the two “earthquake solidarity taxes” created after the 1999 quake. The funds were meant to make buildings resistant to earthquakes.
One of the taxes, paid to this day by mobile phone operators and radio and TV, has brought some 88bn lira (£3.8bn; $4.6bn) into state coffers. It was even raised to 10% two years ago. But the government has never fully explained where the money has been spent.
Urban planners have complained that rules have not been observed in earthquake zones and highlighted a 2018 government amnesty that meant violations of the building code could be swept away with a fine and left some six million buildings unchanged.
The fines brought in billions of Turkish lira in taxes and fees. But when a residential building in Istanbul collapsed in 2019, killing 21 people, the head of the chamber of civil engineers said the amnesty would turn Turkish cities into graveyards.
More than 100,000 applications were made for an amnesty in the 10 cities currently affected, according to Pelin Pinar Giritlioglu of Istanbul University, who says there was a high intensity of illegal construction in the area.
“The amnesty played an important role in the collapse of the buildings in the latest earthquake,” she told the BBC.
Image caption,Cities in 10 provinces with a population of more than 13 million were affected by Monday’s quakes
“We cannot go anywhere by blaming each other and we should seek solutions,” says Prof Erdik, who believes the problem goes beyond politics and lies in a system that allows engineers to go straight into practice after university with little experience.
Prof Gorur calls for the creation of “earthquake-resistant urban settlements” but for that there will have to be a shift in thinking, nowhere more so than in Turkey’s most populous city.
“We have been warning about a possible Istanbul earthquake for 23 years. So the policymakers of Istanbul should come together and make policies to make people, the infrastructure, the buildings and the neighbourhoods resistant to an earthquake.”
Polarised politics
President Erdogan has called for unity and solidarity, denouncing critics of the disaster response as dishonourable.
“I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,” he told reporters in Hatay, near the earthquake’s epicentre.
Many of the towns and cities in the affected areas are run by his ruling party, the AKP.
But after 20 years in power, first as prime minister and then as an increasingly authoritarian, elected president, he leads a highly polarised country.
“We have come to this point because of his politics,” said Mr Kilicdaroglu.
Campaigning for elections expected in May has not yet begun, but he leads one of six opposition parties poised to announce a unified candidate in a bid to bring down the president.
Mr Erdogan’s hopes of unifying the country ahead of those elections are likely to fall on deaf ears.
He has become increasingly intolerant of criticism, and many of his opponents are in jail or have fled abroad. Whenan attempted coup against the president in 2016 resulted in bloodshed, he reacted by arresting tens of thousands of Turks and dismissing civil servants.
The economy has been in freefall, with a 57% inflation rate leading to a sky-high cost of living.
Among the government’s first actions in response to the earthquake was temporarily blocking Twitter, which was being used in Turkey to help rescuers locate survivors. The government said it was being used to spread disinformation and police detained a political scientist for posting criticism of the emergency response.
Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who spent a year in jail in pre-trial detention, wrote from exile in Germany that the aftermath of the 1999 Turkish earthquake helped propel Mr Erdogan to power.
This latest disaster would play a part in the next vote too, he said, but it was not yet clear how.
Marie-Claire Rupio, the wife of Christian Atsu has shared the last time she heard from her husband who has been missing since a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey.
According to her, Atsu who scored his first goal for Turkish-based Hatayspor on Sunday, February 5, 2023, called home the day before the match and had a conversation with their children.
“He spoke to the children last time on Saturday morning, that was the last time that I heard from him,” she told the BBC in her first public interview since the disappearance of her husband.
The wife of the footballer disclosed that she found out about her husband being trapped under earthquake rubble through the news.
“I had a lot of missed calls on my phone from his sister and she just told me, and then I read the news,” she said.
With earlier reports of her husband being rescued from the rubble turning out to be false, Marie-Claire Rupio is hopeful that he will be found alive.
She has therefore appealed to Christian Atsu’s club, the Turkish and British governments to step up efforts in rescuing those trapped under the rubble.
“All I can say is that for me I know the rescuers are trying their best working day and night to rescue everybody. I just feel for everybody who is like me and my children being in the unknown not knowing whether their family (relative) is alive or not. I will just appeal to the Hatayspor Club and the Turkish authorities and the British government to send the equipment to get the people that are still trapped under the rubble out, especially my partner and the father of my children,” she said.
Background
A powerful earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, killing more than 22,000 people (as at February 10) as they slept and trapping many others in the early hours of Monday.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep.
Hours later, a second quake, which had a magnitude of 7.5, hit the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.
In September 2022, the 31-year-old Black Stars winger penned a one-year deal to join the Turkish side following a spell in Saudi Arabia.
It is reported that over 22,000 lives have been claimed by the earthquake in both Syria and Turkey.
The partner of footballer Christian Atsu, who's whereabouts are unknown since Monday's earthquake in Turkey and Syria, says "I still pray and believe he's alive" https://t.co/tDdQFQE4UQpic.twitter.com/Gz5hf76MCc
According to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), there have now been 20,665 fatalities.
It stated that more than 166,000 people were involved in the rescue and relief efforts and that nearly 93,000 victims had been evacuated from the earthquake zone in southern Turkey.
More than 3,500 deaths have been reported in Syria in the meantime.
At least 870,000 people urgently needed food in the two countries after the quake, which has made up to 5.3 million people homeless inSyria alone, the UN warned.
Football player Christian Atsu’s partner has requested that equipment be sent to the building that has collapsed where he was living since Atsu has been missing since the Monday earthquake in Turkey.
Atsu, a player for the Turkish team Hatayspor, was reportedly pulled “with injuries” from a building.
But a day later, his agent stated that it was unknown where he was.
Claire Rupio, a resident of Newcastle, United Kingdom, told BBC News, “I still pray and believe that he is alive.”
Rupio says conflicting reports about his whereabouts have been “confusing” and “quite shocking”, revealing their children heard on the radio that he will still missing.
She said: “I appeal for the Hatayspor club, the Turkish authorities, and the British government to send out the equipment to get people out of the rubble—especially my partner and the father of my children.”
“They need the equipment to get them out—they can’t get that deep without the equipment.” “And time is running out.”
More than 21,000 people have died in southern Turkey and northern Syria since the earthquake and aftershocks that followed.
Taner Savut, the sporting director of Atsu’s club Hatayspor, and Atsu have not been seen since the quake on Monday.
On Tuesday, Hatayspor’s vice-president told Turkish media that Atsu had been found alive, but on Wednesday, other figures from the club as well as Atsu’s agent Nana Sechere said they had not been able to confirm this.
Rupio said that the agent is now in Turkey and attempting to get to the building in Hatay that Atsu is inside.
Sechere tweeted on Thursday: “The situation remains the same, Christian Atsu is yet to be found. Unless I see Christian, or speak with him, I have no further updates.”
“They know where the building is, and they’re trying their best to rescue everybody,” added Rupio.
“They know there are people still trapped under the rubble, but the problem is that they don’t have the equipment necessary to get them out.
“So he’s still missing, and we don’t know where he is.”
‘Atsu reports have been confusing and shocking’
Rupio last spoke to Atsu on Saturday morning. She described the inaccurate news from the club about Atsu having been rescued as “quite shocking.”
“The club were confirming that he was found and was alive and taken to hospital, and 11 hours later my children had to hear from the radio that they still did not know where he is,” she said.
“I know that his agent is there and that they are trying their best to find him.” He will obviously bring me news that I can trust if he sees or speaks to him. “Everything is quite confusing.”
Atsu, 31, played 107 games for Newcastle and had spells with Chelsea, Everton, and Bournemouth.
The Premier League has announced it will donate £1m to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal to deliver humanitarian aid to those in Turkey and Syria in need of it.
Also, as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives, or are affected by these tragic events, Premier League players and match officials will wear black armbands at games this weekend.
The child was seen being carefully taken outside overnight, which the local media hailed as miraculous.
Four days after the disaster, there are fewer survivors to be found, and the chances are dwindling in the bitter cold.
However, search and rescue operations are still ongoing in Turkey and the neighbouring country of Syria, which was also hit by earthquakes.
A thermally blanketed newborn named Yagiz was seen being carried to an ambulance for medical attention.
His mother was brought out on a stretcher. There were no further updates immediately available over the health of both.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – whose teams were reportedly involved in the rescue – tweeted about the rescue, saying it happened in the town of Samandag.
Footage obtained by the Reuters news agency also showed a man being retrieved from the ruins, though it was not known if he had any connection to the other two.
More than 21,000 people have died – most of them in Turkey – after Monday morning’s initial 7.8-magnitude tremor and the hundreds of aftershocks that followed.
There have also been fears of a secondary catastrophe, as many people have been made homeless and are lacking shelter, water, fuel and electricity.
Opposition figures have accused Mr Erdogan of failing to prepare for the earthquake and have questioned how estimated 88bn lira ($4.6bn; £3.8bn) raised from an “earthquake tax” was spent. The levy – first imposed in the wake of a massive quake in 1999 that killed more than 17,000 people – was meant to have been spent on disaster prevention and the development of emergency services.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party said on Wednesday that Mr Erdogan’s government “has not prepared for an earthquake for 20 years”.
Despite the devastation, stories of remarkable escapes or heroic rescues have been emerging over the past days.
Thousands of people have offered to adopt a baby girl who was born under a collapsed building in north-west Syria.
When she was rescued, baby Aya – meaning miracle in Arabic – was still connected by her umbilical cord to her mother, who died along with other family members.
At about 3pm, a man and woman ran in, the man holding in his arms a small bundle, shouting that they needed a paediatrician. Their faces showed panic that had turned to despair. This was the sixth hospital they had run to with their precious bundle – baby Aya, who had just been born in the rubble of a collapsed building to a mother who had died.
A miracle in the rubble
Assuring them that he was a paediatrician, Maarouf gently took the baby from them but what he saw “terrified” him.
“I wasn’t sure she was even alive – she was pale, cold, silent. Her limbs were blue and her body was covered with bruises,” he recalled.
Then a faint pulse was discovered and he and his team sprang into action. They wrapped the baby with warmed blankets and placed her in an incubator, watching her until she warmed up enough that they were able to find a vein to hook her up to calcium and glucose solutions.
Baby Aya is not a fan of the stethoscope, but it helps the doctors determine that she is doing just fine [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]
The man who had brought her in – her aunt’s husband – and the woman who accompanied him – a neighbour – were relieved that Aya was going to be saved, but the cruel reality of that day meant they could not stay any longer by her side as they had to go find their own families, and possibly count and bury their dead.
Four days after baby Aya was first brought in and named by the hospital staff, Maarouf tells Al Jazeera that she is doing much better and that the hospital team has pulled together to make sure she is well taken care of. Although she still spends the day in an incubator, baby Aya is being breastfed by a volunteer who comes in several times a day, which provides her with the human, skin-to-skin contact babies need to thrive, in addition to the antibodies and nutrients that can only be found in human breast-milk.
And she has thrived, Maarouf says proudly, adding that she is putting on weight, showing all the positive indicators and all-around doing much better than he had expected. While he, as a father of seven, often finds himself too deeply moved by the baby’s plight to spend too much time at her side, many of the nursing staff visit her, sitting by her incubator and watching her sleep or coo and wave her arms.
Dr Maarouf is proud of how much Aya has thrived but, as a father of seven, he is deeply saddened by her plight [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]
The circumstances of baby Aya’s mother going into labour remain undetermined, but Maarouf says it is very possible for a woman to go into labour due to shock and for the labour to continue to its end regardless. That the rescuers on Monday heard baby Aya’s cries in the rubble and were able to remove her and get her to help within hours was “first and foremost due to God’s mercy”, Maarouf says.
Surprisingly, he adds, it was possible that the extreme cold complicating rescue efforts had played a role in keeping baby Aya alive until she was found. Because of the cold, she went into hypothermia, which is actually a therapy used in neonatal hospitals to save babies whose brains lack oxygen at birth. This would have preserved her brain function until the hospital staff were able to warm her up and start her care.
‘We’ll stay open, no matter what’
When Maarouf reassured baby Aya’s relatives that they would take care of the baby and that they should go check on the rest of their families, he was speaking with the full knowledge of the horror that had struck Afrin that day. And what war-ravaged Syria has been going through for the past 12 years, as he himself was displaced from Maaret al-Naaman to Afrin in 2019.
Dr Maarouf and his family were displaced from Maaret al-Naaman to Afrin in 2019 [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]
He had spent hours in the car with his wife and children on the day of the earthquakes until their house was deemed safe to go back into, and that day they had 40 people sheltering with them because they had nowhere else to go. It was that thought that pushed him to go back to work that day, that someone might need help.
“Us paediatricians, we’re not the heroes of these disasters, not by a long shot,” he told Al Jazeera. “The true heroes are the surgeons, the civil defence people who are literally saving lives every minute under the most horrible circumstances.
“This is not the first disaster to strike this region, God knows, we’ve had years of bombardment and war. Throughout that time, we are the second line of defence, we usually take care of children who need regular care, who have pre-existing conditions, who still need our care even as walls come falling down. That’s why I said that we would not close the hospital, we would stay open, no matter what.”
Even that was difficult in the first days after the quakes, which have killed more than 21,500 people to date. “The pharmacies closed, the medical depots closed, everything stopped. We were spinning in circles because we don’t have many medicines on hand in the hospital dispensary,” Maarouf said.
The team ran all the necessary checks and were amazed at how well Aya had come through her ordeal [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]
“One of the days, we needed a bit of formula for baby Aya because the volunteer hadn’t come in yet to nurse her. I was at my wit’s end until I remembered that I had a couple of small samples of formula somewhere in my office, so that situation was saved. Now, things are a little better, maybe at 50 percent.
“But that’s still not good enough. Look at how long we’ve been waiting for any kind of assistance! The border crossings are closed they said, those organisations and the UN. So they all can’t find a helicopter to fly aid into here?”
The northwestern part of Syria is held by forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s 12-year war. It is largely isolated, with only one approved land border crossing used to bring assistance via Turkey to its more than four million residents, most of whom are internally displaced.
No aid crossed the Bab al-Hawa crossing for three days after the earthquake due to extensive road damage in Turkey, but convoys resumed coming through on Thursday. The needs, however, remain enormous, with the World Food Programme warning on Friday it was running out of stock in northwest Syria and appealing for more corridors to be opened.
Many of the nursing staff visit Aya, sitting by her incubator to watch her sleep or coo and wave her arms [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]
In spite of the anger and sadness at the situation, or perhaps because of an inner resilience that has been built up over years of successive disaster for the region, he speaks in a remarkably calm voice and with a deep empathy for what everyone around him is going through.
Her aunt’s husband has come to visit baby Aya since, but it does not seem like the family is in any condition to come to take her in just yet, Maarouf said. And that is just fine with him, all the folks at Jehan Hospital are happy tending to baby Aya for as long as it takes.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
Despite advances in both science and technology, it remains virtually impossible to know precisely when and where earthquakes will occur.
“Earthquake prediction has always been kind of a holy grail,” said Wendy Bohon, an earthquake geologist who works as a communications strategist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “If we could tell people exactly when an earthquake was going to happen, we could take steps to mitigate against it. But Earth is a very complicated system.”
Part of the challenge is that the very nature of earthquakes makes them unpredictable events. When one does occur, it happens quickly.
“An earthquake is not like a slow-moving train that eventually picks up speed. It’s a sudden, accelerated event,” said Ben van der Pluijm, a professor of geology at the University of Michigan.
Earthquakes also tend to strike with little to no warning. Though scientists have investigated potential precursor events — everything from shifts in subsurface sounds to potential increases in a region’s seismic activity to changes in animal behavior — they have so far been unable to pinpoint any consistent signals that shaking is imminent.
The lack of any clear pattern makes it difficult to create reliable forecasts akin to weather reports.
Additionally, the processes that underpin earthquakes — the mashing and colliding of tectonic plates and the energy that builds up as a result — tend to play out over long periods of time. Scientists can, for instance, gauge that an earthquake will likely strike an area some time in the next 200 years, which may be specific on geologic timescales. On human time scales? Not so much.
“We have an incredibly good idea of where we expect earthquakes, and even the sizes that we can expect for large earthquakes in these areas, but that does not help us to narrow that down to a human timescale,” van der Pluijm said.
The U.S. Geological Survey is even more blunt on the topic. “Neither the USGS nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake. We do not know how, and we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future,” the agency said on its website.
Still, there are ways to prepare. The USGS has developed an early-warning system called ShakeAlert that detects when a significant earthquake has occurred in California, Oregon and Washington and then issues radio, television and cellular alerts saying that strong shaking is imminent. In most cases, the alerts offer only a few seconds of warning, but that time can be extremely valuable, said van der Pluijm.
“Twenty seconds sounds very short, but it’s enough time for you to find a place under a desk to take cover,” he said. “It’s not a prediction, but ShakeAlert is a huge step forward because it can minimize the inevitable impact.”
One of the most important ways to prepare for an earthquake is to be aware of the risks, Bohon said. For policymakers, this means ensuring that critical infrastructure is protected in earthquake-prone areas.
“What we need to do is to make sure we understand what can happen and build to withstand that,” she said. “We have to make sure people know what to do. We have to make sure that our cities are able to be resilient in the face of those hazards so that we don’t just survive the earthquake, we can survive in the aftermath.”
In the Turkish city of Hatay,Christian Atsu and an official of his club, Hatayspor, are still thought to be trapped inside the wreckage of the apartment building where they once resided.
According to reports in Turkish media, thermal cameras used at the Hatay Renaissance facility have verified that many people who were buried alive by the rubble after the earthquake on February 6 are still alive.
The facility, which has about 250 apartments, was occupied at the time of the incident, according to the media outlet Ajansspor.
“There are many living people, confirmed by thermal cameras. The building, where national handball player Cemal Kütahya and his family, Hatayspor manager Taner Savut, and football player Christian Atsu are located, is very crowded with a capacity of 1000 people,” Ajansspor tweeted with a video of experts at the site.
Christian Atsu and Hatayspor’s Sporting Director, Taner Savut are among the occupants of the facility believed to still be under the rubble.
Reports emerged that Atsu had been rescued alive and sent to the hospital after 26 hours (February 7) but that account was later dismissed as a case of mistaken identity.
The death toll continues to mount even as technical, logistical, and relief support from across the world pours in to help the country cope with the magnitude of death and destruction.
Thousands of offers have poured in for the adoption of an infant who was pulled out of the wreckage following the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
Following Monday’s earthquake in northwest Syria, many of individuals have expressed interest in adopting the newborn girl who was born there.
When she was rescued, baby Aya – meaning miracle in Arabic – was still connected to her mother by her umbilical cord.
Her mother, father and all four of her siblings died after the quake hit the town of Jindayris.
Aya is now in hospital.
“She arrived on Monday in such a bad state, she had bumps, bruises, she was cold and barely breathing,” said Hani Marouf, the paediatrician looking after her.
She is now in stable condition.
Videos of Aya’s rescue went viral on social media. Footage showed a man sprinting from the collapsed debris of a building, holding a baby covered in dust.
Khalil al-Suwadi, a distant relative, who was there when she was pulled to safety, brought the newborn to Dr Marouf in the Syrian city of Afrin.
Thousands of people on social media have now asked for details to adopt her.
“I would like to adopt her and give her a decent life,” said one person.
A Kuwaiti TV anchor said, “I’m ready to take care of and adopt this child… if legal procedures allow me to.”
The hospital manager, Khalid Attiah, says he has received dozens of calls from people all over the world wanting to adopt baby Aya.
Dr Attiah, who has a daughter just four months older than her, said, “I won’t allow anyone to adopt her now. Until her distant family return, I’m treating her like one of my own.”
For now, his wife is breastfeeding her alongside their own daughter.
In Aya’s home town of Jindayris, people have been searching through collapsed buildings for loved ones.
A journalist there, Mohammed al-Adnan told the BBC, “The situation is a disaster. There are so many people under the rubble. There are still people we haven’t got out yet.”
He estimated that 90% of the town had been destroyed and most of the help so far had come from local people.
Rescuers from the White Helmets organisation, who are all too familiar with pulling people out of the rubble for over a decade during Syria’s civil war, have been helping in Jindayris.
“The rescuers can end up being victims too because of how unstable the building is,” said Mohammed al-Kamel.
“We just pulled three bodies out of this rubble and we think there is a family in there that is still alive – we will keep on working,” he said.
In Syria, more than 3,000 deaths have been reported following the earthquake.
This figure doesn’t include those who have died in opposition-held areas of the country.
Though the UN warned that the extent of the disaster is still not entirely clear, it is now known that more than 21,000 people died in the earthquakes that occurred on Monday in Turkey and Syria.
Rescuers are still looking through the rubble for survivors, but more than four days after the initial earthquake, optimism is waning.
After losing their homes, tens of thousands of people have spent a chilly fourth night in temporary shelters.
The president of Turkey dubbed the earthquake “the disaster of the century.”
A significant global relief effort is intensifying. The World Bank committed $1.78 billion (£1.38 billion) in aid to Turkey on Thursday, including immediate funding for the restoration of essential infrastructure and assistance for those impacted by the earthquakes.
Another donation came from the US, which pledged a package of $85m to both countries.
Meanwhile, the efforts of 100,000 or more rescue personnel on the ground are being hampered by logistical hurdles including vehicle shortages and devastated roads.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the full extent of the catastrophe was still “unfolding before our eyes,” especially in Syria, where a long-running civil war has devastated the country.
On Thursday, the first UN humanitarian aid crossed the border into north-western Syria through Idlib’s Bab al-Hawa crossing.
The crossing is the only way UN aid can reach the region without travelling through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.
Mr Guterres promised more help was on the way, and he urged the UN Security Council to allow supplies to be delivered through more than one border crossing.
“This is the moment of unity, it’s not a moment to politicise or to divide, but it is obvious that we need massive support,” he said.
Munira Mohammad, a mother of four who fled Aleppo in Syria after the quake, told Reuters on Thursday that her family was in desperate need of heating and more supplies, saying: “Last night we couldn’t sleep because it was so cold. It is very bad.”
The White Helmets rescue group said the only UN convoy that reached the region did not contain specialised equipment to free people trapped beneath the rubble.
Warnings of second disaster
Officials said on Friday that 18,342 people had died in Turkey, surpassing the more than 17,000 killed when a similar quake hit northwest Turkey in 1999.
An earlier update from Syria had put the toll there at 3,377.
The tremor ranks among the most deadly natural disasters of the century – surpassing others such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Resat Gozlu, a survivor in south-eastern Turkey who is now living on the floor of a sports complex with his family, said rescue workers did not arrive until three days after the quake.
He said many remain trapped under the rubble and others died of hypothermia.
“If this continues there could be serious health issues and illness,” he told the BBC.
The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier warned a second humanitarian disaster will strike unless survivors can get access to shelter, food, water and medicine “very fast”.
The WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, told the BBC the organisation’s staff in Turkey’s Gaziantep were sleeping in cars because “there’s still hundreds and hundreds of aftershocks”.
Dr Kluge said communities in Syria depended on water reservoirs, which were the first to fall. He said the reservoirs need to be replaced or the country faces cholera outbreaks – which he said was an issue before the earthquake.
