Afghanistan: Brahimi meets with Karzai, pledges more UN aid for quake victims

Meeting today with the Chairman of Afghanistan's Interim Administration for the first time since a deadly earthquake hit the country earlier this week, a senior United Nations envoy re-stated the availability of the world body's relief aid to the affected area.

According to a UN spokesman, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Lakhdar Brahimi, reiterated the availability of all UN resources in support of the relief of the victims and areas affected by Sunday's earthquake.

UN agencies have already begun a relief effort in response to the quake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale when it struck the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, with reverberations in Kabul, Jalalabad, Faizabad, Mazar-i-Sharif and Bamiyan.

In Kabul, UN officials cited reports that 50 people were killed and 100 missing, while hundreds of families were displaced from the area of Surkunda village, when mountains collapsed in a landslide into a river, causing a flood.

Representatives of UN agencies and their partners in the field have rushed to the flood- and earthquake-affected areas to assess needs. Supplies of tents, blankets and food were quickly dispatched to families in need, while the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan organized plans to pre-position extra emergency supplies, including 30,000 blankets, 1,000 tents, 10 trucks, 22 tonnes of food, winter clothing and other supplies. The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which has already airlifted aid to victims, has two C-130 planes on standby in Dushanbe, Tajikistan to deliver more vital relief supplies.