James Kon
The Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports (MCYS) received a donation of BND22,000 donation for Turkiye and Syria Earthquake Humanitarian Fund in a ceremony held at the ministry yesterday.
The Ministry of Defence (MinDef) donated BND2,000 donation, while BND20,000 was received from the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF).
Minister of Development Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Muhammad Juanda bin Haji Abdul Rashid, in his capacity as the Acting Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports received the donation from RBAF Commander Major General Dato Paduka Seri Haji Muhammad Haszaimi bin
Bol Hassan and Acting Permanent Secretary at the MinDef Haji Amiruddin bin Haji Mohammad Hassan
In February, devastating earthquakes that struck Turkiye and Syria killed at least 50,000 people with many more injured, tens of thousands still missing and hundreds of thousands homeless, reported the Associated Press (AP).
AP reported that the United Nations (UN) humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council that three weeks after the magnitude 7.8 quake hit southern Turkiye and northern Syria, followed by strong aftershocks, that at least 44,000 people have been killed in Turkiye and about 6,000 in Syria.
“Early assessments indicated five million people in Syria require basic shelter and non-food assistance,” the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
“In many areas, four to five families are packed into tents, with no special facilities for older people, people with chronic illnesses or those with disabilities.”
As for Turkiye the two very large earthquakes on February 6 “caused an estimated USD34.2 billion in direct physical damages”, according to a World Bank rapid damage assessment report.
