HIGHLIGHTS
- A late October earthquake results in 280 deaths in northwestern Pakistan
- GoP officials suspend NWA and SWA IDP resettlement programs for winter
- Approximately 58 percent of households in Pakistan are food-insecure
- Polio vaccination campaigns achieve an 82 percent reduction in cases from 2014
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
- On October 26, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck northern Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush Region, causing tremors felt in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. The earthquake resulted in 280 deaths, injured at least 1,700 people, and damaged approximately 107,000 houses in Pakistan, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Most severely affected areas include Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Chitral, Lower Dir, Shangla, Swat, and Upper Dir districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPk) Province.
- Insecurity persists in Pakistan, with clashes between the Government of Pakistan (GoP) and militant groups hindering humanitarian access. As of mid-December, conflict-related violence in Pakistan had resulted in more than 900 civilian deaths since the beginning of the year, according to international media.
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that more than 193,900 families—approximately 1.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs)—remained displaced in FATA and KPk as of November 12. A voluntary GoP repatriation program to FATA, which provides cash grants and transportation assistance, facilitated the return of more than 138,000 IDP families between March and December.