The chief United Nations aid official said he was encouraged by the uptick in relief convoys rolling into Syria on Monday but warned that more must be done as the death toll from last week's earthquakes continued to rise amid occasional miraculous rescues.
Mass graves have been dug as more 33,000 have died in the border region between Turkey and Syria following a 7.8 earthquake.The chief United Nations aid official said he was encouraged by the uptick in relief convoys rolling into Syria on Monday but warned that more must be done as the death toll from"I am encouraged by the scale-up of convoys from the UN transshipment center at the Turkish border," tweeted Martin Griffiths, U.N.
Still, thousands of bodies also were being removed from toppled buildings. Some survivors waited at the site of collapsed buildings for the bodies of their loved ones to be retrieved. And a week after the quakes hit, many people were still without shelter in the streets.The earthquake death toll in Syria’s northwestern rebel-held region has reached 2,166, according to the rescue group the White Helmets.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.N. ambassador to the United Nations, called for "urgent action" on a U.N. Security Council resolution to authorize additional cross-border humanitarian access into Syria. She cited calls from Griffiths and other U.N. leaders for two additional crossings to help deliver the desperately needed aid.
"Right now, every hour matters," she said in a statement."People in the affected areas are counting on us. ... They are appealing to our common humanity to help in their moment of need. We cannot let them down."
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