Türkiye mobilises all resources, means for quake-hit provinces: Erdogan

Türkiye has mobilised all its resources and means to carry out accommodation and subsistence services for earthquake victims since the deadly February 6 earthquakes, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Within one year, the country will revive the quake-hit villages and cities, and a total of 70,000 houses will be built in the villages to be handed over to their beneficiaries, Erdogan said at a briefing in the southern Osmaniye province on Tuesday.

The new buildings will be no taller than three or four stories in addition to the ground floor, Erdogan added.

On Monday, Erdogan announced that Türkiye aimed to complete the construction of nearly 200,000 permanent houses and place its citizens in those houses within a year in the 11 affected provinces.

Over 13 million people have been affected by the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes that were centred in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Adiyaman, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig.

READ MORE: Erdogan: More than 1.68M quake-affected people provided shelter

Building inspections

Over 271,000 personnel, including search and rescue personnel, were sent to the region for all services, including search and rescue efforts and security since the earthquakes hit the region, he said.

The president also noted that a total of 300,000 tents were set up and currently, 865,000 of our citizens are settled in tents, and 23,500 citizens are in containers.

Some 376,000 of our citizens stay in dormitories affiliated with the National Education Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry, he added.

"Over 1.1 million buildings have been inspected in the region. It was determined that 458,000 independent sections of 139,000 buildings are demolished, about to be demolished and severely damaged," Erdogan stressed.

More than 42,000 people were killed by the back-to-back quakes on February 6, according to the latest official figures. Thousands of others were injured.

Here is how you can help the earthquake victims.