Highlights
• Approximately 88% of assessments (of the estimated 1,632 affected villages) are complete. IOM assessment of the data collected will facilitate gap analysis.
• Verified reports indicate: 117 fatalities; 544 people injured; 12,794 homes damaged and 7,384 houses destroyed.
• Assessments indicate 136,967 people are in need of humanitarian assistance, of which 131,345 people have received some form of assistance so far.
• More than 51,000 people were affected in Badakhshan, where property damage was most extensive. The earthquake claimed the most lives and caused the most casualties in Kunar and Nangarhar.
• Access remains the most significant challenge in providing assistance to people in need and is an issue reaching at least 194 villages affected by the quake.
Situation Update
New seismic activities have been registered in recent days. Of particular note was a 5.9 magnitude seismic event on 22 November. The US Geological Survey reported the event as being 22 kilometres deep with an epicenter approximately 70 kilometres southeast of the village of Jorm, in the same vicinity as that of the 26 October earthquake. Initial damage reports for the 22 November event have not been verified as at the date of this situation report.
Attempts to assess the damage, and respond to the needs of earthquake-affected communities, in difficult to access districts are continuing. These access constraints are due to a number of factors, including insecurity, rugged topography and the onset of extreme winter weather. Access has been blocked by armed conflict to an estimated 1,304 earthquake-affected families in Warduj and Yamgan districts of Badakhshan Province. OCHA continues to coordinate with the Afghan Government on the provision of food and non-food items for 314 families in the two insecure districts of Guzargah-e-Nur and Khost Wa Fereng in Baghlan Province, neither of which are currently accessible by the UN, nongovernmental organizations or the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS).
In Samangan Province, assessments are pending in one village in Aybak District, but have now been completed in Khuram Wa Sarbagh District. Assessments have also been completed in most districts of Badakhshan Province. Following the filing of petitions to the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) from some families claiming to have been affected by the earthquake but who have not yet been assisted, a joint inter-agency assessment team was dispatched to Keshem District of Badakhshan Province to verify the reports. The team included representatives from ANDMA, Islamic Relief, Afghanaid and district authorities.
Initial disaster response activities in the Eastern Region are concluding, with the exception of Kama District of Nangarhar Province, Chawkay District of Kunar Province and some of the affected areas in Laghman Province, where assessment analysis indicate that some areas of Alishang, Dawlatshah and Qarghyi districts may have been missed in the initial assessment phase. At a Provincial Disaster Management Committee (PDMC) on 19 November 2015, IOM IMC, WFP/PAT, ARCS and ANDMA were assigned to assess the areas and to follow-up with the required response.
Notwithstanding the access constraints, coordination related to the provision of food is on-going with ARCS and fieldlevel stakeholders providing support to families in affected areas of Badakhshan, Kunar and Nuristan provinces. With snow falling in some quake-affected areas, the provision of emergency shelter to affected communities, particularly in remote and hard to reach areas, remains a priority. Details of an emergency shelter response plan, developed with input from humanitarian partners, are provided in the Funding Update section (below).