Japan will provide around $27 million in emergency humanitarian aid for Turkey and Syria, devastated by powerful earthquakes earlier this month, the top government spokesman said Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a regular news conference that Japan will offer $16 million in emergency grant aid for Turkish and Syrian victims of the quakes to supply shelters, food and other daily necessities through international institutions.

Rescue workers search a house in Antakya, southern Turkey, on Feb. 21, 2023, after it was damaged in an earthquake the previous day, two weeks after a massive quake left tens of thousands of people dead in the border region of Turkey and Syria. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Tokyo will also give $4 million in support to the two nations through a Japanese nongovernmental organization, while contributing roughly $7 million to a trust fund that channels grant funding from the international community to Syria.

Matsuno said the Japanese government will continue humanitarian support to Turkey and Syria to assist reconstruction of the devastated regions.

The total death toll in the two countries from the earthquakes has surpassed 50,000, according to Turkish and Syrian authorities.

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