UNICEF Again Warns of Critical Situation of Earthquake-Affected Children

Reuters / Stringer via ABC News

UNICEF Afghanistan has once again warned about the critical situation of children in the earthquake-affected areas.

On Tuesday (September 16), the organization, by releasing a video on its X page, shared the account of “Sajed,” an 11-year-old earthquake survivor in Kunar. In the video, Sajed says: “We were 11 people in the family. My mother and sister died, my other brother and sister were injured. Now we live in the open air. Last night it rained, we all got wet, and we have no house and no food.”

According to UNICEF, children make up more than half of the victims of the Kunar earthquake. In this earthquake more than 2,200 people lost their lives, at least 1,182 of them children. Thousands of houses were destroyed and more than half a million people, mostly women and children, were affected.

Charles Nzuki, UNICEF’s Senior Emergency Coordinator in Afghanistan, says in the video: “In the emergency camps of Kunar, we have provided urgent services including health, nutrition, water and sanitation (WASH), and psychosocial support for children and women. Mobile health teams and counselors have also been deployed to assist the affected.”

UNICEF emphasized that despite difficulties in access, it is working to ensure that families and children affected by the earthquake have access to life-saving services as soon as possible. Immediate aid includes treatment of malnutrition, health services, drinking water, and cash assistance for homeless families.

The organization announced that for the next six months it requires 22 million dollars to assist 400,000 people, including more than 212,000 children.

It is worth mentioning that the 6-magnitude earthquake on August 31 in Kunar and Nangarhar was one of the most disastrous recent natural events in Afghanistan, which left more than 3,600 injured and thousands homeless. Taliban restrictions on the presence of female aid workers have made relief efforts more difficult, and women and children, as in the Herat earthquake of 2023, constitute the majority of the victims of this disaster.