insiderblm
BEIRUT: According to the World Bank, last month’s significant earthquake that shook southeast Turkey and parts of Syria’s north caused an estimated $5.1 billion in damages.
According to the UN, the earthquake claimed the lives of at least 50,000 people, including about 6,000 in Syria. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless, and tens of thousands are still missing.
The World Bank estimates that the level of damage in Syria is equivalent to 10% of the nation’s GDP in a report that was released on Friday.
Aleppo, in Syria’s north, was the area that was most severely damaged, with damages totaling $2.3 billion and representing 45% of all damages in the country. The rebel-held northwest region, which is home to about 4.6 million people, many of whom had previously been displaced by Syria’s war, was also severely damaged.
Aleppo was followed by Latakia, a government-controlled region on the coast, with $549 million in damages, and the northwest province of Idlib with an estimated $1.9 billion in losses.
The earthquake has also exacerbated a number of other issues in Syria, where a nearly 12-year civil war has claimed nearly 500,000 lives and forced out half of the nation’s 23 million citizens.
The World Bank issued a warning, noting that there is still a sizable amount of uncertainty surrounding its initial evaluation.
Jean-Christophe Carret, the Middle East regional director for the World Bank, predicted that the disaster would result in a drop in economic activity that would further harm Syria’s prospects for economic growth.
The report’s assessment of damages covers both the residential and nonresidential sectors, and it includes information on both direct damages to buildings and other structures and damage to cultural heritage sites, the latter of which can be particularly tricky to classify.
The World Bank stated on Monday that an earlier assessment put the cost of the quake-related damages in Turkey at $34.2 billion.
