The Higher Relief Commission in Lebanon announced that the Lebanese girl, Asia Muhammad Ibrahim Shoman, was found alive in Turkey, after she had gone missing in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria.
The Lebanese National News Agency quoted the Secretary-General of the Higher Relief Commission, Major General Muhammad Khair, as saying that, in coordination with the Turkish-Lebanese Friendship and Culture Association “Tulip”, the Lebanese girl was found, “and she is currently in Antakya in the “AFAD” center under the auspices of the Higher Relief Commission. She saved her.”
It was not clear if the child was recently rescued from under the rubble, or if she had been lost to her family during the earthquake.
Pictures of the child spread on social media, where the Lebanese transmitted it widely, contributing to the delivery of information to those who know something about it, after Khair had asked the family and relatives of the child and everyone who plays something about her to communicate with the commission.
However, he returned and confirmed in contact with the “Al-Hurra” website that after searching and following up, her family was reached while they were on the way to receive their child, stressing that it was the only Lebanese case of this kind that had been received by the Commission so far, and the parents were quickly found after circulating the news and the full name.
Khair added that this evening “will witness the arrival of the body of one of the victims from Turkey to Beirut International Airport,” pointing out that “all the injured Lebanese in Turkey are being treated and their conditions are monitored by the authority and in cooperation with the Tulip Association.”
As for the official outcome of the number of victims and injured as a result of the earthquake in Turkey, Khair confirms that there is no final outcome yet, due to the chaos caused by the disaster, “especially since a large number of families in Lebanon reported losing contact with their relatives and children who were in Turkey when the earthquake occurred.” At that time, there was a problem in communication and communications, some of them were not missing and contact was restored, and some of them returned to Lebanon without any notification of that, which left confusion in the numbers we have and the Lebanese embassy in Turkey, in light of the loss of a large number of victims under the rubble.
The country’s social networking sites were flooded with pictures of missing Lebanese and their home addresses in Turkey and Syria, published by news and local pages and the accounts of their relatives and families, seeking to obtain any information about them, and with the aim of drawing attention to them as missing, amid the huge number of victims who fell in Syria and Turkey as a result of the earthquake.
The Lebanese follow the news of the ongoing search and rescue work in order to clarify the fate of their children, who are detained either under the rubble or in the affected areas, which they are unable to leave, while other families opened their homes to accept condolences for those they lost.
It is noteworthy that the “Tulip” association had formed the central emergency room since the first day of the earthquake disaster, in which it gathered Lebanese activists from several Turkish provinces to follow up on the file of the missing Lebanese in the earthquake disaster, as it counted and organized a list of the names of the missing, survivors and the deceased and circulated it to all media, and communicated with Turkish official authorities (disaster management, hospitals and the Red Crescent, and Turkish civil society organizations) on the one hand and on the other hand with the head of the High Relief Commission, Major General Muhammad Khair, and the Lebanese Red Cross to help in evacuating the conditions of the community in the affected areas.
In this context, the Director of Communication at the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance, Imad Bazzi, who is in the affected area in Turkey, is following up on the latest data and news about the Lebanese affected by the earthquake in Turkey, where he pointed out that the latest outcome he received about the Lebanese, indicates that 40 Lebanese have been rescued. Since the earthquake occurred until today, while the death toll has reached 14, in addition to 5 others who hold dual nationality (Turkish-Lebanese), and 34 Lebanese are still missing under the rubble.
Bazzi reminds of the missing Elie Haddad and Muhammad al-Muhammad, who are still under the rubble of a hotel in the city of Antakya, where their families are making tremendous efforts to push the rescue workers to search for their children, after a number of survivors and victims were pulled from under the rubble of the hotel, to stop the search after that without waiting. Reveal the fate of the missing.
It is noteworthy that a large number of Lebanese had moved to live, work and study in Turkey during the past three years, due to the economic crisis and the difficult living conditions in Lebanon, which explains the presence of large numbers of Lebanese among the victims and the missing, in addition to the fact that Turkey is a destination for Lebanese tourists and merchants.
The Lebanese embassy in Turkey has not yet published any official figures on the number of Lebanese victims, pending the official notification of the death cases from the Turkish authorities, and the completion of a final census of the number of survivors and the wounded, especially since a large number of Lebanese in Turkey are not registered with the Lebanese embassy, given that they are in the country as a tourist or for the purpose of work.
The search for victims and survivors continues in the Turkish cities affected by the earthquake, as rescue teams find survivors and bodies of victims under the rubble on a daily basis, while the chances of finding survivors diminish as time progresses since the disaster occurred a week ago, as it is difficult to stand under the rubble for a whole day. That period, without food or drink, and in light of very low temperatures recorded in the affected Turkish cities, reaching minus 18 degrees.
In the latest non-final official toll, the earthquake has claimed the lives of more than 35,000 people between Turkey and Syria so far, amid warnings from the United Nations that the numbers may “double”, as the Turkish Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) announced that the earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.8 Degrees left 31,634 dead in southern Turkey, while 3,581 dead were counted in Syria.
Yesterday night (Sunday-Monday) seven people were pulled out alive from under the rubble, according to what the Turkish press announced, including a three-year-old child in Kahramanmaraş, and a 60-year-old woman in Pisni in Adiyaman Province. A 40-year-old woman was also rescued after 170 hours under the rubble in Gaziantep.
Convoys of aid and humanitarian supplies, mobilized by a group of countries around the world, continue to reach the earthquake-affected areas in both Turkey and Syria, in order to support survivors in difficult humanitarian situations.
