United Nations
25 Jun 2022, 06:21 GMT+10
Emergency lifesaving aid relief continued to flow into quake-hit eastern Afghanistan on Friday, as UN humanitarians and partners rushed to help the most vulnerable communities.
One of the UN teams on the ground, the refugee agency UNHCR, transported tons of relief items into the provinces of Khost and Paktika, where several thousand houses were destroyed or damaged by the 5.9 magnitude quake that struck early on Wednesday.
The latest tally from Thursday evening indicated that at least 1,036 people have been killed and more than 1,643 injured, in the worst earthquake to hit the country in two decades.
"At least 121 of these deaths were children and 67 of those injured were also children," said Mohamed Ayoya, Representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Afghanistan. "The total number of people killed or injured is not yet confirmed. Verification is ongoing and we expect these numbers [to be] going up in the hours and days to come."
Critically needed items arriving from the capital, Kabul, include hundreds of tents, thousands of blankets, jerry cans, buckets, plastic sheets, kitchen sets and solar lamps - enough to help 4,200 survivors in Giyan, Bermal, Zerok, and Nika districts in Paktika province, and Spera district in Khost province.
To ensure distribution to the most needy, UNHCR has set up three supply hubs in Giyan, Bermal and Spera districts, so that humanitarian support can be shifted to communities affected by the earthquake. Heavy rains have also swept across the region in recent days, compounding the misery, UNHCR warned.
UNICEF has also dispatched life-saving supplies, including 500 first aid kits, along with treatment for acute watery diarrhoea to help prevent the spread of waterborne diseases.
"Much more support is urgently needed to avert a humanitarian disaster in the affected areas," said UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo, who noted that millions of people in the country face hunger and starvation, after four decades of conflict and instability.
"Already some 24 million Afghans are in need of humanitarian assistance due to the hunger and economic crisis, lack of development aid, and the impact of the changeover in government authorities 10 months ago," Ms. Mantoo told journalists in Geneva.
Across Afghanistan, some 3.5 million people have been displaced by conflict and violence, and another 1.57 million have had to leave their homes because of climate shocks.
© UNICEF/Sayed BidelA one-year-old girl rests in an emergency health clinic after being pulled from the rubble of her collapsed home, which was destroyed during the earthquake which struck Paktika Province, Afghanistan.
Get a daily dose of Northern Ireland News news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Northern Ireland News.
More InformationLONDON, England: Following a request by Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the Horniman Museum in London has agreed ...
SUSSEX, UK - After a Premier League game, a fight broke out, leading to the murder of an Irish drug ...
OTTAWA, Ontario: Military trainers from Canada will head to the United Kingdom to teach Ukrainians new techniques for fighting the ...
LONDON, England: British Airways has halted ticket sales for short-haul flights that depart before the middle of August from London's ...
LONDON, England: In 2023, America's Major League Baseball is set to return to London for the first time since 2019, ...
As Russian forces advanced in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, volunteers raced against time under deadly fire to convince the last ...
ZAGREB, Croatia: Authorities have said that a weekend bus crash near Varazdin in Croatia killed 12 passengers and injured 32.The ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. will participate in a joint military exercise in mid-October with India, less than 62 miles from ...
SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea has launched a domestically manufactured lunar orbiter that took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space ...
MOSCOW, Russia: A leading Russian scientist in the field of hypersonic flight, Dr. Alexander Shiplyuk, has been arrested on suspicion ...
LOS ANGELES, California: During a meeting that was disrupted by protesters this week, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. Justice Department announced this week that former Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vazquez has been arrested in ...