UNICEF complains of slow international response

With over 10,000 children in earthquake-hit Pakistan/India vulnerable to the winter chill, hunger and disease, the United Nations calls for an “immediate and exceptional escalation” of global relief efforts.

International aid agencies have expressed concern over the slow international response to appeals for money and relief material to help Pakistani victims of the South Asia earthquake in which UNICEF says more than 32,000 children may have died. On October 19, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that a “second massive wave of death” would hit Pakistani areas worst affected by the October 8 earthquake unless the global response to the relief effort was immediately stepped up.

The Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which coordinates UN relief work, said it had received only 5% of the US$ 272 million relief amount which it had appealed for a week after the devastating October 8 quake. Besides the US$ 15 million received in cash, OCHA spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said the UN had some $ 45 million in pledges. The money that they require as soon as possible. The topmost priority is for around 600,000 more tents for the hundreds of thousands of people left without shelter. So far, there are only 40,000 tents on the ground.

According to UNICEF, 50-60% of the dead are children; it fears more than 32,000 young people have died and another 42,000 injured in the quake. “People are coming down from the mountains saying villages and schools have been wiped out. It is more than 60%,” said UNICEF spokesman Damien Personaz, although the agency had no overall death toll. “And this figure is going to rise. It is clear that children were the main victims.”

UNICEF warned that there are up to 120,000 children who have not yet been reached by the relief effort in remote mountain areas and who are in danger from the worsening weather, injury and illness. It said up to 10,000 could die of hunger, hypothermia and disease within the next few weeks unless immediate steps were taken to boost the number of those reached by relief. With winter fast approaching and the terrain in hospitable in the affected area of some 20,000 sq km, making the relief effort was one of the most challenging ever undertaken. All essential infrastructure has been destroyed in the area, including roads, water systems, hospitals, schools and government buildings, he said, explaining that some remote areas have still not been reached.

According to the reports, so far donors had made firm commitments for only $ 37 million, or 12%, of the UN’s flash appeal for $ 312 million. In comparison, the Indian Ocean tsunami flash appeal at the beginning of the year was 80% funded within 10 days of the disaster. An estimated 3 million men, women and children are homeless. Many of them have no blankets or tents to protect them against the merciless Himalayan winter. That means a second, massive wave of death will happen if the aids don’t reach the effected areas.

As winter approaches in the mountainous region of northern Pakistan, where the quake struck on October 8, the biting cold is now the main enemy of survivors and the biggest challenge for relief agencies. Thousands of survivors are still living out in the open in cold night temperatures, some with open or gangrened injuries and with little access to clean water. According to the sources, the death toll from both sides of Kashmir and the NWFP could total nearly 79,000.

(disclaimer :Sources for the above information are, UN (News), UNICEF Report, and Reuters)