Media reports say the death toll from the earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria that struck on February 6 surpassed 50,000 on Friday (February 24) after Turkiye declared more than 44,000 people had died.
Reuters notes that the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said the death toll in Turkiye due to the earthquakes had risen to 44,218 on Friday night.
With Syria's latest announced death toll of 5,914, the combined death toll in the two countries rose above 50,000.
Recall, the United Nations officials had previously warned that the number of people killed in the disaster could exceed 50,000.
Tremors are still being felt in the region, which has also been facing freezing conditions, with temperatures dropping below 0°C overnight, affecting people who lost their homes.
More recently, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake reportedly tore through Turkiye's Hatay province, centered in the town of Defne.
Meanwhile, a Turkish government official said work had begun to rebuild homes following the devastating earthquakes.
More than 160,000 buildings reportedly collapsed or were severely damaged in the earthquakes.
Al Jazeera says that according to a tally of United Nations and Syrian government figures, two devastating earthquakes on February 6 killed more than 5,900 people across Syria.
Meanwhile, a delegation of senior Arab parliamentarians met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on February 26.
The heads of the Iraqi, Jordanian, Palestinian, Libyan, Egyptian and Emirati houses of representatives, as well as representatives from Oman and Lebanon, reportedly travelled to Syria as part of a delegation from the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Sunday that they met with Syrian parliamentarians and with al-Assad,
Al Jazeera notes that Syria was largely isolated from the rest of the Arab world following al-Assad’s deadly crackdown against protests that erupted against his rule in 2011.
The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in 2011, and many Arab countries pulled their envoys out of Damascus.
But Syria has benefitted from a support from Arab states following the devastating earthquakes. According to Al Jazeera, Donors have included Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which both supported rebels seeking to overthrow al-Assad in the early years of the Syrian conflict.
