Women and children face heightened risks, while operational challenges – including restrictions on female UN staff – threaten life-saving relief efforts. The twin quakes, measuring 6.0 and 6.2, struck on 31 August and 4 September, flattening entire villages in Kunar, Nangarhar, Laghman and Nuristan provinces. Mountainous terrain and landslides blocked key roads, leaving air transport […]
Briefing correspondents in New York via video link, Shannon O’Hara spoke from Jalalabad on the conditions in Afghanistan just days after the magnitude 6 earthquake and its devastating aftershocks. “We saw families whose lives had been shattered just within a few minutes,” the head of strategy for OCHA in Afghanistan said. Left with nothing “The […]
Since the initial earthquake on Sunday in eastern Nangarhar province, landslides and several strong aftershocks have disrupted the work of rescue teams. In an update, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said that access routes remain blocked in various locations including the districts of Chawkay and Nurgal, both in Kunar province, although the authorities have deployed earth-moving […]
Latest updates from UN assessment teams who reached affected communities in mountainous Ghazi Abad district on foot on Tuesday underscored the urgent need to press on with the humanitarian response. “The issue of getting people out from under the rubble is urgent,” said Salam Al-Jabani from the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, in Kabul. “People are […]
The magnitude six quake has already left more than 800 dead and at least 2,000 injured, but the total impact could be in the “hundreds of thousands”, according to the UN’s top aid official in the country, Indrika Ratwatte. Speaking from Kabul, Mr. Ratwatte said that mud and wooden roof structures were predominant in the […]
“I stand in full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier today,” the Secretary-General said in an online message. “I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured. The @UN team in Afghanistan is mobilized and will […]
“I hate earthquakes. Earthquakes took my mother and my aunt away,” five-year-old Khin Yadanar told the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), after both her mother and aunt were killed when a brick wall collapsed on them. Around 6.5 million children were already in need of humanitarian assistance before the earthquake, which compounded existing vulnerabilities resulting from the […]
Aid agencies warned on Tuesday that more than 6.3 million people remain in urgent need of support in the worst-affected central areas around Mandalay. “People [are] forced to sleep outside, safe water is scarce, health services are disrupted,” said UN aid coordination office, OCHA, in an appeal for more support from the international community. The […]
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) is just one of the UN agencies working to help the most vulnerable in worst-hit central areas, but much more help is needed. “When it rains, they can’t sleep, and when the rain stops, they still can’t sleep because they feared the wind might have their only shelter away,” […]