UN asks the world to finance an urgent fund of US$ 1,000 million for Turkey

The general secretary of the UN, Antonio Guterresasked the international community this Thursday to finance an urgent humanitarian fund of 1,000 million dollars in favor of Turkey after the earthquake it suffered and which left thousands of families in mourning.

The urgent fund seeks to assist 5.2 million people in the next three months by allowing various organizations on the ground to scale up work led by the Turkish government in terms of food, protection, education, water and shelter, according to a report. release.

At the UN daily press conference, spokesman Stéphane Dujarric explained that the initiative is focused on Turkey after consulting with its government, and justified it by explaining that Syria, a country that also suffered the effects of the earthquake, already has a humanitarian community “established”.

This year alone, the aid plan for Syriawhich has been at war for years, requires 4.8 billion dollars from member states, the largest humanitarian request from the international organization, he specified.

The spokesman, faced with criticism for the slowness in aid, admitted that the United Nations humanitarian system is “pushed to the limit” and criticized that many of the problems it alleviates “could be dealt with beforehand”, but they are put aside until the emergency comes to “the door of the UN” and “He needs a lot more money.”

He spoke, among other things, of the “consequences of ignoring climate change” and not “try hard enough” in the peace, stability and social cohesion of the territories.

“We work as fast as we can, but within an existing framework of international law and the UN charter, which forces the UN and agencies to respect the political context. If I were on the receiving end of help I would feel like nothing comes fast enough.”he declared.

This Thursday, he said, two of the three crossings between Turkey and Syria are being used for 22 trucks loaded with food to reach the affected families, but he pointed out that the workers themselves have been affected by the catastrophe.

“Everyone has gotten up, dusted themselves off and gone to work, but it all takes time, frustratingly, and our fuel is money – we need that money”he reiterated.

The UN urged member states to finance the fund for “one of the greatest natural disasters of our time” and recalled that Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world and has “been generous for years with their Syrian neighbours.”

More than 9 million people in Turkey have been directly impacted by the earthquake, including 1.74 million refugees living in the 11 provinces that were struck by the quakes.

Source: EFE