KABUL: Almost 100,000 children in Afghanistan are in dire need of support, three months after earthquakes devastated the country’s west, the United Nations children’s agency said on Monday.
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Herat province on October 7, and a second strong quake struck the same province days later, on October 11, killing over 1,000 people. The majority of those dead in the quakes in Injil and Zinda Jan districts were women and children, and 21,000 homes were destroyed, UNICEF said in a statement.
Fran Equiza, a UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, said that the atmosphere in these villages is thick with suffering even 100 days after the quakes in western Afghanistan when families lost absolutely everything.
He said that children are still trying to cope with the loss and trauma. Health centers and schools, which children depend upon, are damaged beyond repair or destroyed completely.
Life-threatening Conditions in Quake-hit Areas of Afghanistan
Fran Equiza said that, as if this was not enough, winter has taken hold, and temperatures hover below freezing. Children and families without homes live in life-threatening conditions at night, with no way to heat their temporary shelters.
UNICEF said it urgently needs 1.4 billion dollars in 2024 to meet the humanitarian and basic needs of 19.4 million Afghans, half of the population.
The Taliban’s failure to invest in public services has contributed to the basic services’ deterioration, hindering the ability of vulnerable communities to recover from shocks and build resilience, the agency said.
Equiza added that we are grateful to our donor partners who mobilized resources quickly, enabling the agency to respond within days to the urgent needs of children and their families in Herat. But more help is needed to ensure that minors not only survive the winter but have a chance to thrive in the months and years to come.
