UN appeals for $110 million in response to Afghanistan earthquake

The United Nations launched an urgent appeal on Monday for $110.3 million to help more than 360,000 Afghans affected last week by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that killed nearly 1,000 people, including 150 children.

Funding is required in the next three months to meet urgent humanitarian needs, prevent further deaths, and help rebuild homes and communities destroyed by the disaster.

Aid agencies and Taliban officials said the quake destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes in several districts in Paktika and Khost provinces.

“I appeal to the world – please help. We need money. We need funding. We need support to resolve this tragedy,” Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Resident Relief Coordinator for Afghanistan, said in a video message while visiting an area in Paktika province hard hit by the earthquake.

More than half of the resumed funding, if provided by donors, will be spent on emergency shelters and non-food items, while about $35 million will go to emergency food and health care needs.

Several countries in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, India and China, responded to the disaster with planes laden with tents, clothing, medical supplies and food. The United States also pledged assistance.

“U.S. humanitarian partners are already responding, including by sending medical teams to assist affected people, and we are evaluating other response options,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement on June 22, the day the earthquake was reported.

The earthquake response appeal is separate from the $4.4 billion Afghanistan humanitarian appeal for 2022, the largest single country appeal ever launched by the United Nations. In the middle of the year, donors pledged less than 34% of the humanitarian appeal. With a commitment of $459.6 million, the United States tops the list of donors.

Online financing is temporarily suspended

Hours after the earthquake was reported, online campaigns appeared on social media platforms calling for help.

Over the past five days, at least 120 individual calls for funding have been launched on the GoFundMe crowdfunding platform, raising more than $500,000 from international donors.

However, some funds cannot be transferred to banks in Afghanistan due to US sanctions on the Taliban.

“We raised a lot of money thanks to people’s goodwill, but we can’t move the money because of politics and bureaucracy,” Ajmal Ziyarmal, who has raised more than $26,000 from GoFundMe, told VOA.

“People have lost loved ones, homes and everything they have, and they should not be punished further because of politics,” he added.

A GoFundMe spokesperson expressed sympathy for the Afghan earthquake victims, but said that some of the funds raised on the platform are temporarily on hold.

“When funds are temporarily on hold, it generally means that we ensure a clear path to the beneficiary is established and that the fundraiser is compliant with the GoFundMe Terms of Service and international laws and regulations,” a VOA spokesperson stated.

The California-based for-profit platform encourages donors to submit their contributions to verified activists whose accounts are not subject to transfer restrictions. As of June 27, nine verified activists have raised funds for the earthquake response.

The United States has issued humanitarian waivers for financial transactions with Afghanistan, especially when the aid is not directly beneficial to the Taliban. But aid agencies say they still face significant hurdles and delays in banking with the country.

“The formal banking system continues to block remittances by over-reducing risks, affecting payment channels and causing supply chains to collapse,” Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, told the Security Council last week.

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