Two and a half weeks after the earthquake disaster in the Turkish-Syrian border area, the number of dead has risen to more than 50,000. In Turkey alone, the number is 44,218, the Turkish disaster agency Afad reported on Friday evening. 5,900 deaths were recently reported from Syria.

Aftershocks continue to shake the region, often causing panic among local residents. According to the Turkish government, 20 million people in the country are affected by the earthquake. The United Nations assumes that 8.8 million people will be affected in Syria.

The areas affected by the earthquake were initially difficult to access, but salvage work is being continued, and the number of victims is increasing as it progresses. There have been no more reports of the rescue of survivors in the past few days.

The series of earthquakes began on February 6, when two earthquakes measuring 7.7 and a little later measuring 7.6 shook southeast Turkey and northern Syria. This was followed by more than 9,000 aftershocks, according to Turkish sources.

According to the United Nations, the earthquake disaster was not only the worst in Turkish history in terms of fatalities. The mountains of rubble are also unprecedented, said Louisa Vinton, the representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Turkey. According to the Turkish government, more than 173,000 buildings have been registered as having collapsed or been badly damaged.

In Turkey, eleven provinces are affected by the earthquake, in Syria the north-west. There is only sparse information about the situation from the civil war country. In the face of years of bombardment and fighting, many people there were already living in precarious conditions before the tremors.