On 6 February 2023, at 04:17 TRT (01:17 UTC), a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria. The epicenter was 37 km (23 mi) west–northwest of Gaziantep. The earthquake had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII (Extreme) around the epicenter and in Antakya. After regular aftershocks, It was followed by a second earthquake on the evening of 20 February, at 8.04 pm, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake strucking Hatay, with epicenter of Defne district. Many buildings in the province have collapsed, including many partly damaged by the first earthquake but still standing. The earthquakes touched between 13 and 20 million people: more than 50,000 people lost their lives, more than two million people were evacuated to other provinces; and 1.5 million of them still live in tents and 300,000 in containers.
Once again, this disaster echoed the numerous lessons that have been learned in similar post-earthquake contexts such as Haïti, Lebanon and Nepal. Groupe URD quickly got down to work, producing an initial guidance document based on lessons learned from previous evaluations.
Then, in March-April 2023, with the support of CARITAS Luxembourg, Groupe URD carried out its first assessment and support mission.
One year after the disaster, a new Groupe URD mission visited the area to assess the situation and, above all, to strengthen the capacity of the Turkish NGO SGDD-ASAM to better respond to risks and disasters in Turkey.