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Six Days, One Survivor
A toddler was rescued from the rubble in Venezuela six days after the country was hit by twin earthquakes, with Venezuelan authorities calling him the only reported survivor on the sixth day of rescue efforts.
“A sign of hope in a massive tragedy”
The boy, identified by Reuters news agency as Klieber Moran, was pulled from the Los Corales Garden 1 building in La Guaira state by rescuers from Jordan, according to acting president Delcy Rodríguez’s message via Telegram.
Venezuela was hit by two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 less than a minute apart last Wednesday, toppling buildings and trapping thousands of people beneath the rubble, according to authorities and rescue teams.
Jorge Rodríguez said in a televised address, “We must hold on to the hope of continuing to find people alive beneath the rubble,” as the child was taken for medical treatment.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said a shipment from Unicef carrying 47 metric tons of humanitarian supplies arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday to help support children and families in need.
Conflicting Ages, Divergent Totals
Delcy Rodríguez said the rescued child was three years old, while National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez described him as two years old, and the boy was taken for medical treatment after the operation.
Jorge Rodríguez told Reuters that the rescue was “a source of hope,” and the BBC reported the child was rescued by a Jordanian civil defense team.
The death toll figures also diverged across outlets, with the government putting the death toll at more than 1,900 and more than 10,000 people injured, while People reported that as of Tuesday, 1,943 deaths were recorded and the number of injured stands at 10,571.
UN agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters, as CNN reported survivors were taking refuge in a park in Caracas.
CNN said more than 15,800 people have been affected or displaced after the twin earthquakes shook Venezuela last week, citing the United Nations.
Aftershocks, Missing, Aid
As rescue efforts continued, the scale of the disaster remained unsettled in the sources, with the government figure of more than 1,900 deaths and more than 10,000 injured contrasted by other tallies that cited 1,943 deaths and 10,571 injured.
“Advertisement In the midst of the tragedy Venezuela is living through due to the two earthquakes that struck the La Guaira state last Wednesday, there remains a glimmer of miracles”
Nasa estimates that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes, which would put the number of people affected by the quakes in the hundreds of thousands, while Unicef said on Tuesday that 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.
The sources also described a humanitarian crisis unfolding among the living, with UN agencies warning about health effects for thousands of displaced people sleeping in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.
In parallel, international search-and-rescue and aid shipments were arriving, including Unicef’s 47 metric tons of humanitarian supplies and a CNN report that clean up in Venezuela was hampered by a lack of fuel.
Jorge Rodríguez said the government had set up 14 shelters in La Guaira and 55 between Caracas and the other affected states, while Delcy Rodríguez thanked foreign countries for their aid in the most difficult moments.
