The World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing food to affected communities in eastern Afghanistan, following a powerful, 6.0 magnitude earthquake late Sunday (31 August) that killed hundreds of people and injured or otherwise affected thousands more.
With assessments still under way and fears the casualty toll will climb sharply, WFP is initially delivering high-energy biscuits to communities in quake-affected areas near the border of Pakistan – and dispatching mobile storage units to support the broader emergency response. The WFP-managed United Nations Humanitarian air Service (UNHAS) also stands ready to operate additional flights to transport passengers and cargo to the eastern city of Jalalabad, near the epicentre of the quake.
Some of the affected areas were already grappling with flash floods, and forecasts for the coming days indicate continued severe weather, likely worsening the humanitarian situation.
“What we’re witnessing on the ground is devastating – homes reduced to rubble, roads destroyed, landslides everywhere and tragically, lives lost,” said Harald Mannhardt, WFP’s Deputy Country Director in Afghanistan. “Our teams are working around the clock to get emergency food to those in need, but the reality is brutal.
“This is a mountainous region, now completely cut off. Some communities can only be reached on foot, and the journey can take up to five hours,” he added. “This is the last thing families with young children need in a country where many don’t have enough food, and a large portion of the children are already malnourished. We are pushing forward because lives depend on it.”
This latest earthquake – with reports of flattened villages and people buried under the rubble – adds to a series of crises hitting Afghanistan, deepening an already alarming humanitarian picture. The country is already grappling with surging malnutrition, forced returnees from Pakistan and Iran, an intensifying drought, and a sharp decline in humanitarian aid due to funding constraints.
Even before the quake, reduced funding had forced WFP to drastically shrink our assistance to reach only the most vulnerable – leaving millions of hungry people without support as winter looms.
This most recent quake comes nearly two years after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake devastated Herat Province in western Afghanistan in October, 2023. Then, too, WFP distributed high-energy biscuits to hundreds of families – many of whom had lost their homes and all their belongings.
