Briefing correspondents in New York via video link, Shannon O\u2019Hara spoke from Jalalabad on the conditions in Afghanistan just days after the magnitude 6 earthquake and its devastating aftershocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw families whose lives had been shattered just within a few minutes,\u201d the head of strategy for OCHA<\/a> in Afghanistan said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe earthquake had destroyed their homes, their farms and their livelihoods, leaving them with absolutely nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n OCHA has managed to reach 49 damaged villages in the Nangarhar, Kunar and nearby affected provinces in eastern Afghanistan.<\/p>\n As humanitarian workers struggle to reach more regions, current\u00a0reports<\/a> show that nearly 40,000 people have been impacted by the earthquake, while over 5,000 homes have been destroyed.<\/p>\n \u201cEven before the earthquake, these villages were difficult to reach,\u201d said Ms. O\u2019Hara. \u201cNow, with the earthquake, it takes extraordinary effort to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n A narrow, one-way road on the mountainside which was \u201cblocked by large rocks from landslides and many vehicles trying to get up and down the valley\u201d is the only way to get to affected areas from Jalalabad, said Ms. O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n A 100-kilometre drive took Ms. O\u2019Hara and her team more than six and a half hours. To reach victims, first response teams have to drive \u2013 and often travel for hours on foot.<\/p>\n Emergency responders are prioritising aid to women, children, and locals with disabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Afghanistan, in recent years, women and girls have been pushed to the very margins of society and survival,\u201d said Ms. O\u2019Hara. \u201cWe know from previous earthquakes and other crises that women and girls always bear the heaviest burden.\u201d<\/p>\n A estimate from UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA<\/a>, shows that 11,600 pregnant women have been affected by the destruction \u2013 in a country that already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in region.<\/p>\n OCHA is working to ensure that \u201cthat women are represented in health teams and more women aid workers are supporting distributions, along with nutrition, psychosocial and other counseling services,\u201d said Ms. O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n The natural catastrophe has resulted in families living without clean water and sanitation in tents or \u201cunder open skies, exposed to rain and cold,\u201d said Ms. O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n \u201cWith cholera endemic in the region and initial assessments indicating that 92 per cent of these communities are practicing open defecation, the potential for a cholera outbreak is alarming,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n While UN agencies are distributing meals and sanitation kits, efforts need to be scaled up.<\/p>\n \u201cThe affected communities are struggling with basic survival,\u201d she stressed.<\/p>\n So far, 43,000 victims have received ready-to-eat meals and UN agencies are also providing tents, blankets and sanitation kits to assist families. But humanitarian efforts risk being disrupted if heavy rain floods IDP sites or if potential aftershocks bring more landslides. Snow from the approaching winter season is also expected to block vital roads.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don’t act now, these communities may not survive the coming winter,\u201d said Ms. O\u2019Hara. \u201cAdditional funding is urgently needed.\u201d<\/p>\n OCHA has already released $10 million for life-saving supplies and an emergency response plan is currently being finalized.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout immediate support the weeks ahead risk compounding this tragedy with preventable disease outbreaks, further displacement and additional loss of life.\u201d<\/p>\n UNOCHA\/Ahmad Khalid Khaliqi<\/p>\n Food aid is delivered to people affected by the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan. <\/p>\n A new consignment of more than 35 metric tonnes of life-saving medical supplies landed in Kabul<\/a> on Monday, to enhance the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO<\/a>) emergency response.<\/p>\n WHO has now prepositioned and delivered nearly 80 metric tonnes of emergency health supplies to the country since the disaster.<\/p>\n The newly arrived cargo, mobilised through WHO\u2019s logistics hub in Dubai, includes trauma and emergency surgery kits, primary health care kits, noncommunicable disease kits and essential medicines.<\/p>\n These supplies will be dispatched to health facilities and mobile health teams in the hardest-hit areas, following the ongoing needs assessments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Briefing correspondents in New York via video link, Shannon O\u2019Hara spoke from Jalalabad on the conditions in Afghanistan just days after the magnitude 6 earthquake and its devastating aftershocks. \u201cWe saw families whose lives had been shattered just within a few minutes,\u201d the head of strategy for OCHA in Afghanistan said. Left with nothing \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11611],"tags":[9290,4079,8788,16299,19501,7270],"class_list":["post-29248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spyballoon-global-news","tag-afghanistan","tag-basic","tag-communities","tag-quake","tag-struggling","tag-survival"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Collections\/Embargoed\/08-09-2025-OCHA-Afghanistan-02.jpg\/image770x420cropped.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"SPYBALLOON GLOBAL NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Briefing correspondents in New York via video link, Shannon O\u2019Hara spoke from Jalalabad on the conditions in Afghanistan just days after the magnitude 6 earthquake and its devastating aftershocks. \u201cWe saw families whose lives had been shattered just within a few minutes,\u201d the head of strategy for OCHA in Afghanistan said. Left with nothing \u201cThe…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29250,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29248\/revisions\/29250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Left with nothing<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Aid workers face challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018The heaviest burden\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Alarming potential for disease outbreak<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Urgent action needed<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Fresh supplies land in Kabul<\/strong><\/h2>\n