At least 155 children have perished as a result of last week's deadly earthquake in southeast Afghanistan, the United Nations reported, as the severity of the most destructive earthquake to wreck the nation in 20 years unfolds.
The magnitude 6 earthquake that shook the hilly communities in the Paktika and Khost provinces close to the nation's border with Pakistan, demolishing homes and causing landslides, injured another 250 children, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Sunday.
Taliban government raised the Afghanistan Earthquake Death Toll to 1,150, with hundreds more injured, while the U.N. has a slightly lower estimate of 770, although the world body expects that the number will jump, as per a report from Click On Detroit.
Days after the earthquake, Paktika's severely damaged Gayan area, which is now a sight living in ruins, lost the majority of its children.
The U.N. humanitarian agency also reported that the 65 children were orphaned by the calamity and further cautioned that cholera infections that follow seem to be a severe health problem.
A Serious Challenge to Taliban Rule
The Afghanistan earthquake has turned into a test of the Taliban's ability to rule and the readiness of the global community to assist after decades of conflict, famine, poverty, and an economic crash.
The Taliban have sought outside assistance, aware of their constraints. The U.N. and several strained charity groups in the nation have stepped up their efforts to keep Afghanistan from dying of hunger. Caravans of aid have gradually made their way into the outlying areas despite financial and logistical difficulties.
Many Western countries have ignored Taliban leaders because of concerns over human rights since they took over the country in 2021.
It is complicated for nations to offer help to thousands of victims due to the sanctions imposed on Afghan government institutions and banks, cutting off direct aid and causing a humanitarian crisis even before the disaster, CNN reported.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan demanded that Western financial institutions unfreeze billions of dollars worth of central bank assets and repeal sanctions.
Help Is on Its Way
UNICEF announced on Monday that it was taking measures to reunite children with their families who had been split up after the quake's turmoil and upheaval. In addition, it has set up clinics where traumatized young people in Gayan can receive counseling and medical attention.
Gayan, which is about an hour away, has received food and other supplies from aid organizations as well as some from the Taliban government. It takes hours to reach there on muddy roads that zigzag around mountains and across river beds, even from the closest town, per BBC. For loaded vehicles, the journey takes way longer.
People in the village were already struggling to make ends meet before the Afghanistan earthquake. Others harvest pine nuts from the forest in the mountains surrounding the community, while others work as laborers.
According to residents, many more earthquake-damaged communities in the mountains to the east and north have not yet received relief goods.
The majority of people are still dwelling in the earthquake-damaged zones, although hospitals in Kabul that are better accustomed to treating war victims have opened their wards to earthquake patients.
