Pope Leo XIV on Sunday offered prayers for victims of deadly earthquakes in Venezuela – the second appeal in as many days – hours after a significant aftershock struck off the coast of Venezuela.

The magnitude 4.8 aftershock was detected Saturday near Venezuela’s northern Aragua state.

In his appeal Sunday, Leo thanked emergency workers, whose search and rescue efforts are now in their fifth day.

Frequent aftershocks – more than 400 of them according to Venezuelan officials – have been one factor hampering the emergency response in the sorely tried nation.

“I wish to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes,” Leo said in remarks following the Angelus prayer on Sunday.

Speaking in Spanish and noting the “great material damage” wrought by powerful back-to-back seismic events that struck Wednesday – the pontiff prayed for the dead and injured and expressed his spiritual closeness to all those affected.

“As we pray to the Lord for the eternal repose of the deceased,” Leo said, “I renew my spiritual closeness to their families, the injured, and those struck by this tragedy.”

The pope at the same time expressed his “gratitude and support to those who are generously carrying out search and rescue efforts.”

Work to locate and extricate survivors from the rubble has been going around-the-clock since the temblors struck, but workers have faced enormous obstacles due to the breadth of destruction and lack of resources, despite significant international support.

The United Nations Children’s Fund – UNICEF – on Saturday said 1.8 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, including 680,000 children.

RELATED: Church relief organizations respond to Venezuela quakes, urge international solidarity

The official death toll climbed to 1,430 persons on Saturday and is expected to rise, while more than 3,500 people have been injured.

A severe decade-long economic downturn in Venezuela weakened infrastructure and curtailed available medical and other resources, factors experts and observers on the ground say have hampered rescue and relief efforts.

On Saturday, Pope Leo XIV led 178 cardinals in offering prayers and calling for international solidarity in support of rescue and recovery efforts on behalf of Venezuela.

Saturday’s appeal came at the close of a consistory that saw the participation of 178 cardinals – nearly ¾ of the whole College, including both voting-age and non-voting-age members (those over the age of 80) – who met over two days in Rome at Leo’s invitation.

RELATED: At close of consistory, pope appeals for victims of Venezuela quake

Seismographers have located the epicenter of the twin quakes in Yaracuy State roughly 100 miles west of Venezuela’s capital city, Caracas, and provoking major devastation especially throughout Venezuela’s coastal La Guaira state.

The temblors occurred along the San Sebastian fault system spanning Venezuela’s northern coast.

The first quake struck roughly 12.6 miles below the surface, while the second – significantly more powerful than the first – struck at a depth of only 6 miles.

The depth at which a seismic event occurs is a key factor in the destructive power of a quake. Events that occur at shallower depths often cause greater destruction than those that occur at greater depths.

Some estimates have said the death toll could climb as high as 10,000.