World Bank: Quake caused damage worth $5.1 billion in Syria
BEIRUT (AP) — The World Bank said Friday that Syria sustained an estimated $5.1 billion in damages in last month’s massive earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and northern parts of the war-torn country.
The quake killed at least 50,000 people, including about 6,000 in Syria, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands are still missing and hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
In a report released Friday, the World Bank says the level of the damage in Syria is about 10% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Syria’s northern province of Aleppo was the most severely hit region, accounting for 45% of the total damages in Syria and amounting to about $2.3 billion in damages. Also badly hit was the rebel-held region in the northwest, home to some 4.6 million people, many of them previously displaced by Syria’s war.
Aleppo was followed by the northwestern province of Idlib, with estimated damages of $1.9 billion and Latakia, government-controlled territory on the coast, with $549 million.
The earthquake has also compounded myriad other troubles in Syria, where the nearly 12-year civil war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
Insurgents breach Syria's second-largest city Aleppo, fighters and a war monitor say
Thousands of displaced Lebanese return from Syria as ceasefire with Israel holds
Syrian insurgents launch large-scale attack on government forces in the country's northwest
Strike blamed on Israel kills 36 people in Syria's historic town of Palmyra, Syrian state media say
The World Bank cautioned that there is still a significant degree of uncertainty around its preliminary assessment.
“The disaster will cause a decline in economic activity that will further weigh on Syria’s growth prospects,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank head for the Middle East.
The damages assessed in the report include both in the residential and nonresidential sectors, such as direct damages to buildings and structures, as well as damage to cultural heritage sites, which is especially challenging to qualify.
In an earlier assessment report, the World Bank said on Monday that the damages in Turkey from last month’s earthquake are estimated at $34.2 billion.