Islamic Relief distributing food to earthquake survivors in Afghanistan

Islamic Relief’s emergency response team is distributing food parcels to families in Afghanistan’s Paktika province who were made homeless by the deadly earthquake.

In one village the team met survivors and heard how nine people from a single-family, including four young children, were killed. They were asleep in their house when the earthquake struck in the middle of the night.

Islamic Relief is responding in Barmal district, which is one of the worst affected areas and has received little aid so far. Access to the area has been extremely challenging due to the remote, mountainous location and heavy rains. The Islamic Relief team is aiming to deliver vital food supplies to more than 2,000 families over the coming days.

Ajmal Majboor, Islamic Relief’s humanitarian program coordinator, is on the ground delivering food in Paktika today. He said:

“The scale of devastation is unimaginable. People have lost absolutely everything. There’s nothing left where their homes used to be, just rubble and death. Entire families have been killed. I met a survivor of one family from which nine people were killed, four of them children. Eight more of their relatives are injured and are now in hospital. Some people are still trapped under the rubble and the death toll is likely to keep rising even further.

Many survivors don’t have anything to eat and they urgently need food, shelter, and water. They are hungry, thirsty, and sleeping outside, exposed to the wind and rain, or taking refuge in any building that’s still standing. The area where we are responding is very remote and people there have received very little aid so far. Today we’ve started distributing food supplies, but much more is desperately needed.”

The earthquake is certain to make what is already one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises even worse. Afghanistan is struggling in the face of an economic crisis and sanctions, with spiraling food prices, record unemployment, and a critical shortage of cash. 24 million people, more than half of the population, are now in need of humanitarian aid, and malnutrition among children is rising as most families cannot afford enough food. Islamic Relief is calling on the international community to help provide emergency aid but also work to address Afghanistan’s economic collapse.