UN will appeal to reconstruct areas devastated by the earthquake in Afghanistan

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will make an emergency appeal to finance long -term reconstruction of Last Week’s east Afghanistan areas, which left more than 2,200 dead and 6,700 houses destroyed. “We will make an emergency appeal in the coming days. We ask the Member States and partners to act as soon as possible,” said UNDP representative, Stephen Rodriguez, in a statement released by the Afghan channel Tolo News.

UNDP has planned an initial aid package of $ 8 million for “reconstruction of shelters, transitional houses and permanent communities, building some roads and renewable energy supply”, explained Rodriguez. However, the UNDP representative clarified that “this is just a small part of the general picture,” suggesting that the need for funds will be much higher.

This new effort for reconstruction adds to emergency aid that has already begun to reach the country. , Qatar, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Japan, and Iran have already provided assistance to affected, according to local sources.

Difficulties for humanitarian response

The magnitude 6 earthquake was recorded on August 31 in eastern Afghanistan, a mountainous and difficult to access region. The little depth of earthquake multiplied its destructive power, leaving a balance of at least 2,205 dead, 3,604 injured and about 6,700 destroyed houses.

The humanitarian response was severely impaired by the geography of the area, as the earthquake and its constant secondary tremors caused landslides that blocked the already precarious roads, isolating entire communities and making it difficult to reach vital help.

Afghanistan is, for now, unable to deal with the reconstruction of devastation by itself, in a country where nearly half of the population, about 23 million people, already needed humanitarian aid before catastrophe.

*With information from EFE

Posted by Nicolas Robert