The United Nations has said it has been unable to reach 362 villages in Afghanistan in the wake of a deadly earthquake in its eastern Kunar province, which killed at least 2,200 people and flattened entire communities and their homes.

In a news briefing on Monday from Jalalabad, near the epicentre, Shannon O’Hara, who oversees the coordination of the UN’s humanitarian office in Afghanistan, said the earthquake had struck “some of the most remote, rural areas in the country”, making the delivery of humanitarian aid difficult.

O’Hara said an initial assessment only took account of 49 out of 411 affected villages in Afghanistan’s eastern regions, and found 5,230 homes destroyed and 672 damaged.

“Even before the earthquake, these villages were difficult to reach. Now, with the earthquake,

See Full Page