The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
STORYLINE
More than 66,000 directly affected by Afghanistan’s quake victims
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has launched a multi-sectoral Herat Earthquake Response Plan in response to a series of powerful earthquakes that rocked Herat Province since 7 October.
In an update, OCHA reported that at least 1,480 people have been killed and 1,950 wounded.
Satellite imagery indicates that 289 villages have been severely impacted with many destroyed. The most recent earthquake on 15 October affected an estimated 30 new villages, forcing families to live in makeshift shelters or informal settlements. Speaking from Kabul, Katherine Carey, deputy head of the OCHA office in Kabul said that around 66,300 people had also been directly impacted across six primary districts.
Many of those who left their homes following the initial earthquake are now residing outside in either makeshift or temporary shelters out of fear of additional aftershocks, Ms. Carey added.
According to the OCHA spokesperson, the earthquake's impact is far-reaching with
reports of more than 3,700 homes completely destroyed and around 5,000 homes severely damaged. Upwards of 2,600 homes have sustained some kind of damage, along with schools and healthcare facilities.
As winter approaches, concern is also growing as people will be exposed to harsh weather and health risks.
With food resources limited and damaged water and sanitation points, fears are rising about disease outbreaks: “The priority really is to ensure that these families and communities have some protection from the elements.
“In terms of shelter requirements, obviously the immediate priority is to ensure that people not residing out in the open completely and they have some kind of protection,” Ms. Carey explained. “So, in the first instance we are providing families with emergency tents. But the reality is, is that will only be able to withstand them for so long as well. We will have to move them in some kind of transitional shelter, normally a sort of repurposed, prefabricated kind of module that is a bit more like a sort of temporary structure,” Ms. Carey added.
To help, the UN’s Herat Earthquake Response Plan requires some $93 million for 114,000 people. The OCHA spokesperson called on the community not to forget Afghanistan amid other high global needs: “We're able to provide the populations with the assistance they need insofar as we have the resources and the supplies to do so. We're already using existing stock that we have in country of tents, for example, and medical supplies and medicines and also of wash kits and hygiene kits and kits. And those will need to be replenished also as well,” she said.
ends
STORY: Update on Afghanistan’s earthquake response - OCHA
TRT: 02:17”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 17 OCTOBER 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1. Exterior wide shot, United Nations flag flying.
2. View of interview with OCHA spokesperson.
3. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Katherine Carey, Deputy Head of Office, OCHA Afghanistan: “The information that we've got from our assessments that we've completed is about 66,300 people directly impacted across six primary districts that have sadly been just shy of 1500 people killed and around 2000 injured. The majority of those killed or injured were actually killed and injured in the first earthquake that took place on the 7th of October, after which many people left their homes and are actually residing outside in either makeshift or temporary shelters as well, out of fear that there may be additional aftershocks and the houses may collapse.”
4. View of interview with OCHA spokesperson.
5. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Katherine Carey, Deputy Head of Office, OCHA Afghanistan: “We've got reports of more than 3700 homes completely destroyed, around 5000 homes have been severely damaged. And then there are upwards of 2600 homes that have sustained some kind of damage. So this is affecting, you know, several thousand families in fairly remote, impoverished communities as well.”
6. View of interview with OCHA spokesperson.
7. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Katherine Carey, Deputy Head of Office, OCHA Afghanistan: “The priority really is to ensure that these families and communities have some protection from the elements, especially with winter fast approaching.
8. View of interview with OCHA spokesperson.
9. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Katherine Carey, Deputy Head of Office, OCHA Afghanistan:
In the first instance, we are providing families with emergency tents. But the reality is, is that will only be able to withstand them for so long as well. We will have to move them in some kind of transitional shelter, normally a sort of repurposed, prefabricated kind of module that is a bit more like a sort of temporary temporary structure.”
10. View of interview with OCHA spokesperson.
11. SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH) Katherine Carey, Deputy Head of Office, OCHA Afghanistan: “Yesterday we launched an earthquake response plan outlining our requirements to meet the needs of the priority affected population over the course of winters up until March next year. And of course, you know, we're able to provide the populations with the assistance they need insofar as we have the resources and the supplies to do so.”
12. Screen with OCHA spokesperson.
13. View of interview with OCHA spokesperson.
14. View of interview with OCHA spokesperson.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Ongoing Russian attacks in Ukraine force frontline areas to empty: UNHCR
With Ukrainian cities still reeling from this week’s deadly Russian missile and drone attacks, communities on the front line continue to be targeted too, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. “We also see attacks on frontline regions increasing and it's, as always, civilians that are bearing the highest cost of the war,” said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | WFP
Funding and supply shortfalls for the UN World Food Programme (WFP)'s work in Ethiopia will halt lifesaving treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children at the end of the month. “We are at the breaking point,” it said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Israeli military operations in Lebanon continue to kill and injure civilians, and destroy civilian infrastructure, raising concerns regarding the protection of civilians, the UN Human Rights Office warned today.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNWOMEN , UNDP
Sudan: Aid teams report massive displacement after latest Darfur atrocity; women’s bodies ‘turned into battlegrounds’
In Sudan’s North Darfur, tens of thousands of people have fled a displacement camp following the massacre of civilians and aid workers as the country enters the third year of a conflict marked by horrific levels of sexual violence, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | ITC
Global trade could shrink by three per cent as a result of the United States’ new tariff measures which in the longer term could reshape and boost as-yet untapped regional commercial links, a top UN economist confirmed on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Warring parties in Sudan are overseeing a wholesale assault on human rights amid global inaction, the UN Human Rights Office said on Friday, as the conflict is about to enter its third year.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Friday said Israel’s increasing issuance of so-called “evacuation orders” for Palestinians in Gaza have resulted in their forcible transfer.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , OHCHR , UNHCR , UNWOMEN , WFP , WHO
Two years of war in Sudan have created epic suffering, aid agencies say
Two years since Sudan’s brutal conflict began, UN agencies warned that famine is spreading and civilians of all ages continue to suffer shocking abuse, including rape and gang rape.
1
1
Edited News | UNMAS
In Gaza, ongoing Israeli military operations and the aid blockade have continued to add to daily fears and hardships confronting those in the devastated enclave, the UN Mine Action Service, UNMAS, said on Wednesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNDP
Dangers grow for Myanmar earthquake survivors, health system 'overwhelmed' - UNDP
In earthquake-shattered central Myanmar people are sleeping in the streets in fear of buildings collapsing, facing early monsoon rains and the risk of waterborne diseases, the UN Development Programme warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | ICRC , OHCHR , UNHCR
Myanmar’s military has continued to launch airstrikes and other attacks against opposition forces in the devastated country, one week since a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck and despite announcing a ceasefire, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif on Tuesday presented a report on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, detailing the continued violations of human rights as a result of the offensive launched by the Rwandan-backed M23 in eastern DRC.