After devastating earthquakes CERF and AHF respond together

Afghanistan | 2022 | CERF

Paktika Province, Afghanistan. Two earthquakes – one on 22 June and a second on 18 July –_affected over 362,000 people living in Paktika and Khost provinces. Critical infrastructure – homes, health-care clinics, schools, roads and water networks, were destroyed.

Ahmad Khan and his wife and family were woken in the night. “It was 1:00 AM when we felt the earthquake. It was not a simple earthquake. We felt [like] someone was bombarding the house from the sky. When we woke up, we left our house as soon as possible, and our house collapsed. With the second shaking, those who were able to leave their houses …were saved; but some were not able to survive since they did not leave the house in time,” he said.

Although the family was safe, the earthquake destroyed their house and all their belongings.

He and his family had to move into a temporary shelter and have been receiving food, medical care and other basic provisions provided by UN agencies and NGOs, and funded by the AHF and CERF.

Elsewhere in the province, Mahmoud Housaini’s father was killed and his own house was also destroyed. Since the earthquake, Mahmoud is caring for his younger siblings as well as his own children. Several family members were injured in the house as it crumbled. While he and his family are receiving food and basic shelter support, he is worried about the heavy rains and freezing winter ahead. More humanitarian support is needed to keep families like Mahmoud’s safe and help them to survive the coming months.

Every humanitarian response is supported by reliable logistics and telecommunications which allow aid workers and essential supplies to get where they need to be. AHF funding is supporting provision and restoration of United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flights and emergency telecommunications services required to maintain the earthquake response in this rugged, hard-to-access area, as well as the rapid creation of three Humanitarian Hubs for aid workers to work and stay.

The multi-sectoral Emergency Earthquake appeal estimates that 262,000 people live in high-intensity impact areas, with 100,000 of them directly affected by the disaster. The appeal asks for $110.3 million to front load life-saving response activities. The CERF allocation of US$10 million on 7 July and $19 million allocated by the AHF are supporting experienced humanitarian partners to address the needs included in the response plan.

Names have been changed.

More information on the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund

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