Afghanistan Earthquake 2023

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook western Afghanistan in Herat, Badghis and Farah provinces on 7 October, with continuing aftershocks. More than 2,000 people have lost their lives with thousands more missing and injured. This has been one of the deadliest earthquakes to hit Afghanistan in years. Another 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Herat on the morning of 11 October. One person was killed with several hundred injured. In total, 444 villages have been affected by both earthquakes.

UNICEF has dispatched 10,000 hygiene kits, 5,000 family kits, 1,500 sets of winter clothes and blankets, 1,000 tarpaulins, and basic household items to ongoing humanitarian efforts.

Coordination response so far

• OCHA is coordinating the emergency response on behalf of humanitarian partners with a preliminary Operational Coordination Team (OCT) meeting held on 7 October to take stock of the situation and map response capacity, with another meeting scheduled for 8 October to determine wider response and recovery efforts. A meeting was also held with the Provincial Governor, with OCHA Herat also in coordination with DoRR Herat.
• Ten multi-Agency MSRAF teams deployed for assessment missions carried out on 8 October.
• ICCT developing an emergency appeal, as subset of 2023 HRP (as in 2022).
• UNOCHA highlighted the importance of working through the clusters and that the interagency approach is required for the care of survivers.

Nutrition coordination:

• There is a dedicated sub-national nutrition cluster coordinator covering the affected areas with support from Hermann (NCC), Victor (Deputy NCC) and Qutab (IMO) from Kabul
• The GNC has conducted a meeting with Afghanistan coordination team & nutrition team to discuss the way forward in term of response priorities:    
  • Conducting rapid nutrition assessments including the needs for RUIF for affected non-breastfed children
  • Considering developing IYCF joint statement
  • Starting the process of requesting RUIF from UNICEF HQ and checking the availability of stock in neighboring countries or local procurement 

Links to critical information

• UN OCHA  
  • Flash update #1 
  • Flash update #2 
  • Flash update #3
  • Flash update #4

We will update this page regularly with new information, including response efforts. Here is a link to the Afghanistan country page on the GNC website which houses valuable information such as current challenges and needs, as well as key contacts.