The UK will provide £2.5 million to offer the Afghan people with immediate life-saving assistance, according to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said today that the UK will give £2.5 million for immediate life-saving assistance to people in Afghanistan affected by the tragic earthquake this week.
According to reports, the disaster in the southeast of the country on June 22 claimed at least 1,000 lives and injured more than 1,400 people. As emergency personnel get to the worst-hit areas, these numbers are anticipated to rise.
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) will receive a total of £2 million to help people in need of basic necessities like food, water, shelter, and medical care.
In Khost and Paktika, the two most severely affected provinces, the IFRC already has employees and volunteers working on the ground to respond to the catastrophe and help meet the urgent humanitarian needs.
An additional £500,000 will be given to the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is currently on the ground and working to provide shelter and financial aid to people in need.
This assistance will come from one of the largest bilateral programs, the UK’s aid fund for Afghanistan, which has a budget of £286 million this fiscal year. Through the UN Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund and World Food Programme, the UK provided cash last year to provide emergency medical services, water, protection, shelter, food, and education.
International partners are coordinating the worldwide response and swiftly determining the humanitarian requirements, including the United Nations and the World Food Programme. The UK is in direct communication with them to give support and is prepared to take into account any requests for aid or other assistance. Before the earthquake, the UN, NGOs, and Red Cross were already distributing UK supplies to the affected areas.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said:
“The recent earthquake is a tragedy for the people of Afghanistan. The scale of need was already severe before the earthquake struck, with more than half of the population requiring humanitarian assistance.
“UK support will enable lifesaving supplies to be provided on the ground. Our aid budget for Afghanistan is one of the UK’s largest bilateral programmes and we will continue to work urgently with our international partners to respond to the unfolding humanitarian crisis.”
In March 2022, the UK and the UN co-hosted a high-level international pledge event to raise further crucial money. Due to the size of the humanitarian challenge the country was already experiencing prior to the earthquake, the UN’s appeal for approximately $4.5 billion for Afghanistan received the highest response of any single country appeal in UN history. Through NGOs and UN partners, UK funding is distributed. The Taliban do not receive any funding directly or indirectly.