On 15 February, in collaboration with the Turkish Medical Association, a team from Doctors Without Borders donated various essential relief items to people affected by the earthquake in the city of Adiyaman in southern Türkiye. Türkiye, February 2023. © Igor Barbero/MSF
Image of the city centre of Adiyaman, in southern Türkiye, after many buildings collapsed due to the earthquakes that hit this country and Syria on 6 February 2023. Türkiye, February 2023. © Igor Barbero/MS
Arriving in the city, which had nearly 300,000 inhabitants before the catastrophe, my first impression was of chaos. Search and rescue teams were working non-stop to find survivors. People were taking turns to wait next to collapsed buildings, hoping to find their loved ones alive, or at least to find their bodies so that they could have a dignified burial and not be taken to a common grave.
In Adiyaman, hundreds and hundreds of buildings have been completely destroyed. A significant proportion of the city is severely damaged, while many of the remaining buildings have cracks and other issues. Bulldozers are already removing tons of rubble. The authorities are inspecting the buildings that are still standing. People are very afraid of going back to their homes because there are still aftershocks from time to time, so no one in this city is staying in their home right now.
On 15 February, in collaboration with the Turkish Medical Association, a team from Doctors Without Borders donated various essential relief items to people affected by the earthquake in the city of Adiyaman in southern Türkiye. Türkiye, February 2023. © Igor Barbero/MSF
Many informal camps for displaced people have sprung up in open spaces – in stadiums, squares, in the middle of streets. A couple of the camps are large but mostly are relatively small. There are tents scattered across almost every corner of the city, away from buildings but not too far from the survivors’ homes. Many people are sleeping in their cars to protect themselves from the cold. We are in the middle of winter and temperatures here can reach 10 degrees below zero at night.
Adiyaman is a ghost town now. There’s little life: only a few gas stations are open; banks, businesses and almost all stores are closed.
Some of the city’s population, especially the economically better off, have left in their cars; the government has also facilitated travel by bus, plane and train from affected cities to places like Istanbul, Ankara and Antalya. Many other people have chosen to go to rural areas around the cities. The destruction there has been less, but with displaced people arriving from other places, they also need humanitarian aid. In the villages and small towns, it is common to see 20 or 30 people living in houses of just a few rooms.
Despite a significant response by authorities and Turkish civil society, the help on offer is small compared to the enormity of the situation. At the moment, people really need shelter, latrines, showers, water, heating systems, winter clothing, generators, blankets, hygiene kits and cleaning products.
We’re not registered in Türkiye so we are working through various NGOs and local civil society groups to provide the most urgently needed assistance. This has included donating essential relief items, providing transport to take people to mobile clinics on the outskirts of Adiyaman, and generating energy in two camps for displaced people.
Soon our teams will start providing mental health support, which is crucial given the suffering that people have experienced, and we plan to set up mobile pharmacies and help points. We hope to do much more and to contribute our experience in emergency situations. It is important to be flexible in this response given the magnitude of the disaster and the rapidly changing situation.”
