According to an update released on June 26 by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), at least 155 children have died as a result of the calamitous earthquake that struck southeast Afghanistan last week.
The magnitude 6 earthquake that shook the mountainous regions in the Paktika and Khost provinces close to Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, demolishing homes and causing landslides, according to the UNOCHA, also injured another 250 children.
Days after the earthquake, Paktika’s severely damaged Gayan district, which is now a spectacle of life in rubble and ruins, lost the majority of its children.
According to the UNOCHA, the incident has also left 65 additional children orphaned or homeless.
According to the Taliban officials, the earthquake that hit a remote region of southeast Afghanistan and left the locals homeless caused at least 1150 deaths, more than 1,500 injuries, and the destruction of more than 10,000 homes.
With the recent call from the cash-strapped Taliban for the release of the frozen funds, Afghanistan has undergone its deadliest earthquake in 20 years and is in urgent need of humanitarian relief.
UNICEF has set up child friendly spaces, with over a 100 caregivers, where children are offered and benefiting from psycho-social first aid services.
