UN issues emergency funding appeal to help survivors of devastating Afghan earthquake

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United Nations is issuing an emergency appeal for nearly $140 million in desperately needed funding to help nearly a half-million people affected by the devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan authorities have said the 6.0 magnitude quake on Aug. 31 and ensuing aftershocks killed more than 2,200 people in the country’s mountainous and rugged east. Many of the most severely affected areas have been particularly difficult to get to, with some reachable only by helicopter.

The U.N. said in a statement Tuesday that the $139.6 million, four-month emergency response plan would allow humanitarian organizations to help the 457,000 people who have been affected in the provinces of Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar.

Rescue operations concluded on Tuesday, with the official death toll at 2,210 across all three provinces, said Naqib Rahemi, the health department spokesman from Nangarhar province.

More than 3,600 people have been injured, with stretched health facilities struggling to provide treatment, while more than 6,700 homes have been damaged or destroyed. The U.N. has said it has so far been able to visit only 49 of the 411 villages affected due to damaged roads in the rugged terrain.

“This is a moment where the international community must dig deep and show solidarity with a population that has already endured so much suffering,” the U.N.’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, Indrika Ratwatte, said in a statement. The approaching winter means assistance efforts are in a “race against time,” Ratwatte added.

Local authorities and humanitarian organizations have been conducting relief operations to provide food, shelter and medical care. The U.N.’s earthquake response plan, which will run to the end of the year, will allow aid organizations to increase operations particularly in high-elevation areas ahead of winter, the U.N. statement said.