A child has been rescued from the rubble in Venezuela, six days since the country was hit by devastating twin earthquakes. The boy, identified by the Reuters news agency as Klieber Moran, was rescued early on Tuesday, the only reported survivor on the sixth day of rescue efforts, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Moran was pulled from the Los Corales Garden building in La Guaira state by rescuers from Jordan, Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said in a message via Telegram. The child was described as three years old by Rodríguez, but as two years old by National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, and was taken for medical treatment.
Rescue and Medical Response
“We must hold on to the hope of continuing to find people alive beneath the rubble,” Jorge said in a televised address. “Early this morning, a two-year-old boy was rescued and is currently receiving care at a health centre in Caracas.”
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.
Humanitarian Aid Arrives
A shipment from the UN children's agency, Unicef, carrying 47 metric tons of humanitarian supplies arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, adding the equipment would help support children and families in need. The shipment includes emergency health kits for urgent medical care, including supplies for safe births, newborn care, disease prevention, and treatment, Dujarric added.
Death Toll and Crisis
The government puts the death toll at more than 1,900, with more than 10,000 people injured. Experts say that is a significant undercount as more bodies are hauled from the rubble every day and morgues struggle to handle the influx. Among the living, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. UN agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open, or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.
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. Unicef said on Tuesday that 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.
