Turkish citizens in Nigeria mourn earthquake victims

The First Surat Group has mourned the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

The group are owners of Nizamiye Hospital, Nigerian Tulip International Colleges (NTIC), and Ufuk Dialogue – all Turkish establishments.

The death toll from the earthquake that occurred on Monday has crossed 20,000.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said it is not just a challenging time for Turkey but the world as a whole.

“From the footage, it is obvious that thousands of lives have been lost and more than half of the city of Kahramanmaras has been completely destroyed,” it reads

“The harsh weather condition is progressively compounding the already bad condition of the survivors as rescue workers race against time to pull more people out of the rubble.

“In fact, the level of destruction and the pain unleashed by the incident is inconceivable. It is indeed a challenging time, not just for Turkey but for the world as a whole – we feel the trauma and can understand the profound anguish of every surviving Turkish and Syrian citizen at this time.

“As humans, we are extremely weak and highly limited in knowledge. So, it is almost impossible for us to gauge the turns of nature. And, our efforts are never good enough to prevent such a natural occurrence.

“We therefore submit our affairs to the Almighty God and take solace from the fact that He, being our creator, knows and does the best at all times.

“Certainly, words cannot express our feelings. We simply pray to God to heal the world and give us the fortitude and resilience to overcome the pain and trauma left behind by this incident.”