Stranded Ghanaian Students in Turkey have relocated from Gaziantep city which was one of the areas affected by the earthquake to Ankara, believed to be a safer zone.
It’s been a week since a massive earthquake affected some cities in Turkey and Syria killing over 30,000 people.
The disaster has been described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the deadliest and the ‘worst’ earthquake in a century.
The Ghanaian students who were based in Gaziantep University had earlier raised concerns that their attempts to obtain tickets from the Ghana-Turkey embassy to migrate from the affected area to a safer city had not yielded positive results.
However, after days of attempts, the students have been provided with accommodation at their new location with Ghana’s Ambassador to Turkey, Fransisca Odunton assuring them of adequate support to ensure their safety.
One of the Ghanaian students in Turkey, Abdullai Rabiu while confirming the development to Citi News expressed satisfaction about their relocation.
“Two days ago, that is Sunday, we left our city, Gaziantep to Ankara. We left and that very day, we met with the Ghana-Turkey Ambassador. She was so happy about the development. We talked about our experience and all that. With her help, we have been able to get an apartment and we are here. So far, we will say it’s better than before. Now that our accommodation has been taken care of, and we are in a different city, we are okay,” he said.
The Turkish government is racing against time to rescue all unaccounted-for persons who have been buried in the rubble. So far more than 8,000 people have been pulled alive from the debris several days after the incident occurred.
As relatives of these survivors are elated about the rescue of their loved ones, families of persons who are yet to be retrieved are also worried their relatives may not be pulled out.
For the Ghanaian students, they are traumatised following the tragic incident.
“As it stands, we are trying to get over the psychological trauma. We are helping ourselves by engaging in some games and conversations to take our minds off what happened,” they said.
