Afghanistan

UNICEF Wants More Aid For Children Affected By Earthquake In Western Afghanistan

Afghan girls and women carry donated aid to their tents during a fierce sandstorm after the earthquake in Zendah Jan district in Herat Province in October 2023.

UNICEF, the UN's aid and relief organization for children, has called for greater support for the nearly 100,000 children affected by the October earthquakes in the western Afghan province of Herat.

In a January 15 statement marking 100 days since the first earthquake on October 7, UNICEF said that the tremors killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed 21,000 homes, severely impacting the livelihoods of countless people in several Herat districts.

"To make matters worse, Herat Province is now gripped by a harsh winter, threatening lives and slowing efforts to rebuild," the statement said.

Fran Equiza, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, said villages that bore the brunt of the tremors were still suffering 100 days later.

"UNICEF is concerned about the survival of 96,000 children affected by the earthquakes if we are not able to provide the services they need to recover," he said, while appealing for more aid quickly.

Equiza said schools and health centers in the affected region were damaged beyond repair or had been destroyed completely.

"Children are still trying to cope with the loss and trauma," he added.

Equiza said nighttime freezing temperatures were now threatening the lives of children and their families.

Most residents affected by the tremors still live in tents, which are difficult to heat.

In Zindah Jan, one of the Herat districts most affected by the earthquakes, many require urgent humanitarian support to survive through the winter.

Gholam Ali, a resident of Naib Rafi village in Zindah Jan, said his children are sick because they live in an unheated tent.

"No one pays attention to us, no one even sees us," he told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

"My children shiver from the cold because we have no stove, firewood, or coal," he added. "We have no warm clothes and blankets."

During the past week, Afghan philanthropists have distributed hundreds of houses they built in Herat. But the needs of those displaced by the tremors far exceed the supply of new housing units.