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
Edited News | UNOG
What can each one of us do to save the planet, asks Yann Arthus-Bertrand on World Environment Day
The last documentary film of legendary nature photographer, documentary director and environmental activist “Nature: The Call for Reconciliation” looks for an answer.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza, are unconscionable. For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured,” Jeremy Laurence UN Human Rights spokesperson said at the biweekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
Gaza ‘hungriest place on earth’ with aid stymied – UN humanitarians
Starving Gazans continue to be deprived of aid as international relief efforts are being severely constrained by the Israeli authorities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNRWA
As a controversial United States and Israel-backed aid distribution plan gets underway in Gaza, the UN called on Tuesday for an “immediate surge” of its own pre-positioned supplies to help prevent starvation.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani today urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject a bill that was recently endorsed by parliament allowing trials of civilians in military courts. The Uganda People’s Defence Forces Amendment Bill 2025, which was passed on 20 May and now awaits presidential signature to become law, among others broadens the jurisdiction of military courts, authorising them to try a wide range of offences against civilians.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango today warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan at the bi-weekly briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Syria: ‘Staggering’ needs amid insecurity, health care crisis - UN humanitarians
Millions of people in Syria continue to face mortal danger from unexploded munitions, disease and malnutrition and urgent support is required, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , OCHA , WHO
UN life-saving aid allowed to trickle into Gaza as civilian needs mount
Amid calls for more humanitarian trucks to enter the food and medicine-deprived Palestinian enclave of Gaza, UN humanitarians have received permission from Israel for “around 100” more aid trucks to cross into the Strip after only five were let in yesterday, But the scale of relief efforts allowed remains entirely insufficient to meet the urgent needs of people there, humanitarian workers say.
1
1
1
Edited News
A war reporter from Lebanon who lost a limb in the line of duty is calling for an end to impunity for attacks against journalists.
1
1
1
Edited News | ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) commemorated 160 years dedicated to connecting the world on Saturday, 17 May in Geneva, Switzerland, during the annual World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , OCHA
Gazans ‘in terror’ after another night of deadly strikes and siege
Amid reports that Israeli strikes across Gaza into Friday killed at least 64 people, aid teams once again pushed back strongly at allegations that aid is being diverted to Hamas and pleaded for the blockade to end.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Deportations over recent months of large numbers of non-nationals from the United States of America, especially to countries other than those of their origin, raise a number of human rights concerns, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday.