JOHANNESBURG - The UN is pleading with rescue workers to head to Venezuela.
It estimates that around 50-thousand people are still missing after the deadly twin quakes.
The body said food, water and medication are also needed, but they are not a priority right now.
Tom Fletcher, UN Humanitarian Chief, said it is normal for people to want to send items to disaster-stricken areas.
If we can source what's needed in the country, we need to do that very, very fast. And I need the planes going out now to be filled with rescuers rather than provisions.
“We will get hold of the medicine, the food, the water, the shelter, but we need the world to come behind that effort. The focus for now has to be finding the survivors and saving as many people as possible, and I want people with families under the rubble, people whose loved ones, friends, and families are there.
“You can't imagine how horrifyingly traumatic that must be. And I want them to know that we were there, and we're going to do our best.
“We're going to move mountains to save their loved ones. I mean, 50,000 people are missing, and it's our job to find as many of them as possible, and to keep that death toll as low as we can get it, but it's clearly going to rise significantly. But 35 teams of 50 to 100 people in each of those teams are going to be working around the clock to keep that number as low as we possibly can."