6 Mar 2023; MEMO: More than two million people have participated in a popular donation campaign in Saudi Arabia that has collected over 474 million riyals ($126.4 million) for the victims of the last month's devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria, Anadolu News Agency reports.
The campaign saw the participation of 2,030,561 people, according to data released by the Saudi government's Sahem Platform, which is responsible for the popular campaign for relief of the quake victims in the two countries.
The donation campaign was launched on 8 February by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, a day after King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, directed the Centre to operate an air bridge and organise a popular campaign to support Turkiye and Syria in the wake of the earthquake disaster .
The frequent update of the campaign platform shows a remarkable increase in the number of participants and the value of donations since its launch.
At least 45,968 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Turkiye on 6 February.
Magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centred in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.
In neighbouring Syria, over 5,900 people have been killed in the earthquakes.
