Kabul, Afghanistan
Assessments to determine loss of life and property damage continued for a third consecutive day following the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that rocked northeastern Afghanistan on 26 October.
Under the auspices of Provincial Disaster Management Committees, joint rapid assessments have now been able to verify the complete destruction of 2,419 houses with a further 2,445 houses severely damaged (IOM reporting). Further assessments are ongoing in all earthquake affected Provinces, including via the use of the Operational Satellite Applications Programme of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR-UNOSAT) which is conducting damage assessments using before and after satellite imagery of the earthquake.
The Government reportedly has released AFN 50 million AFN (USD7.7 million) for the emergency response, including for the provision of food rations and logistical support. Humanitarian partners, meanwhile, are supporting rapid assessment activities and have begun responding to immediate needs for food, health, temporary shelter and non-food items. With winter approaching, and the onset of extreme winter weather as early as the end of November in some quake-affected areas, emergency shelter and winterization are particularly pressing concerns to be addressed.
Access to quake-affected areas continues to be a significant disaster response challenge due to the rugged topography and security in the most severely-affected parts of the country such as Badakhshan, Nuristan, Takhar and Kunar provinces. However, humanitarian actors who are concurrently responding to two separate emergencies (the earthquake and the post conflict Kunduz environment) also face difficult resource allocation decisions. During a national level OCHA-led coordination meeting, humanitarian actors provided updates on their actions to date and OCHA, on behalf of the Humanitarian Coordinator, announced that the emergency reserve (currently USD3 million) of the Common Humanitarian Fund would be activated for earthquake response.