Majority of Afghanistan earthquake victims are women and children, WHO says

KABUL (Reuters) – Among victims of Afghanistan’s recent earthquake with serious injuries, two-thirds are women and children, the head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency response said on Monday in the country.

The earthquake that struck the country on Saturday left more than 2,400 dead and more than 2,000 injured, according to the ruling Taliban. This is one of the deadliest earthquakes this year, after those in Turkey and Syria which left more than 50,000 dead.

“The earthquake occurred around 11 a.m. when men were outside the houses, so the majority of injured and dead are women and children who were inside the houses at that time “there,” Dr Alaa Abouzeid of the WHO told Reuters in a video interview.

“Two thirds of the seriously injured people admitted to the hospital that I saw yesterday are children and women,” he added, referring to the city of Herat to which he visited the following the earthquake.

He said he was “devastated” to see the number of children hospitalized in critical condition.

“I saw a child of about 3-4 months suffering from earthquake-related head trauma,” he said.

More pediatricians arrived at health centers on Sunday to support those already on the ground and funding for humanitarian operations remains crucial despite global attention shifting away from Afghanistan, Alaa Abouzeid added.

Afghanistan’s health system, which depends almost entirely on foreign aid, has faced significant budget cuts since the Taliban seized power two years ago.

(Reporting Gibran Peshimam; French version Nathan Vifflin, editing by Kate Entringer)