5.3 Million may be homeless in Syria after devastating earthquake: UNHCR

As many as 5.3 million people in Syria may have been left homeless by the earthquake," the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sivanka Dhanapala, told a press briefing.

"We are also leading in the protection sector here. Throughout Syria, we have a network of community centres, satellite centres, outreach volunteers, and this helps us reach vulnerable populations. We've set up hotlines for all sorts of protection-related issues, which we use," he added.

Roads have been damaged due to earthquake and that is hampering humanitarian access to the affected people.

He said the UN estimated that 5.37 million people affected by the quake would need shelter assistance across the country.

The UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has been rushing aid to the badly impacted parts of the country. The agency's key focus is on shelter and relief items, ensuring that collective centers the displaced have gone to have adequate facilities, as well as tents, plastic sheeting, thermal blankets, sleeping mats, winter clothing and so on.

He pointed out that the most vulnerable among the affected are the elderly, those with disabilities, and some children who've been separated from their parents.

The total death toll in Turkey and Syria surpassed 23,000 on Friday, according to officials, reported CNN.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at least 20,213 people were killed and 80,052 injured in the earthquake that struck 10 provinces in Turkey this week, according to Turkey's state media Anadolu.

He said citizens rescued from the wreckage have been transferred to provinces outside of earthquake-struck regions.

Digital photos of those whose identities are unknown are being uploaded to "special software for matching," Koca said.

"I hope that we will reach the identity information of most of the people," he added.

Meanwhile, at least 2,166 people were killed in opposition-held northwest Syria by the major earthquake, Syrian White Helmets have said.

The toll in the government-held areas also has risen to 1,387 deaths and 2,326 injured, the state media reported on Thursday citing Syria's health ministry.

This brings the total death toll in Syria to 3,553.

Rescue workers are still racing against time to pull survivors from the rubble. Some successful rescues have occurred in Turkey, but an aid group said the hope is fading in parts of Syria.

"The delivery of urgent supplies to impacted rebel-held areas of northwest Syria has been complicated amid a long-running civil war. The Syrian government approved sending aid to those territories Friday, but did not provide a timeline," the official statement said.

"For Syria, this is a crisis within a crisis. We've had economic shocks, COVID and are now in the depths of winter, with blizzards raging in the affected areas. A number of our own staff are sleeping outside their homes because they are worried about the structural damage to their homes. This is just a microcosm of what is happening throughout the affected areas," he said.

There are 6.8 million people already internally displaced in the country. And this was before the earthquake.

"The agency is looking at life-saving activity, you know, the adaptation of the collective centers, tents, non-food items and so on. Then we will look - over the next 8 to 12 weeks - at supporting livelihoods and basic services in affected areas, shelter support provision, installation of emergency shelter kits, and minor repairs to damaged housing. We'll look at debris removal, trying to support authorities and partners with equipment and capacity, mobilizing engineers, and how we could support the community in assessing some of the structural damage and looking at the way forward also with their livelihood opportunities," the official release of the UNHCR read.

In the northwest of Syria - which is especially badly hit - access has been badly impeded by the damage. What we call ''cross line" supplies (from government areas into the NW) made it through before the quake - and these had been pre-positioned and are being distributed from warehouses. From now, we hope that an agreement with the Government will allow for fast and regular access to these areas.

Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said, " he will head to Aleppo next week, Hama and Latakia, where we have the pre-positioned stocks of 30,000 core relief items and 20,000 tents. To echo the words of the UN Secretary-General, speaking last night: This is about people. That is all that matters."

( With inputs from ANI )