UN News Today 19 September 2025 |

Afghanistan quake: Rescuers dodge dangers, women and girls face disaster, warns UN

Women and girls still reeling from Afghanistan’s deadly earthquake face even greater suffering rebuilding their lives and livelihoods – with little help to hand.

That’s the message from gender equality agency UN Women, which said that although the major aftershocks have now mostly passed, women in affected areas face “a long-term disaster”, without more urgent assistance.

Since a six magnitude earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan last month, rescuers have battled extremely challenging terrain – often on foot – to reach hundreds of remote communities in Kunar province.

Susan Ferguson is UN Women’s Special Representative in Afghanistan; she’s been speaking to survivors:

“We met in a stiflingly hot tent with a dirt floor and soon that ground will freeze as winter approaches. These women had fled their village in the middle of the night when the earthquake struck, walking for hours to find temporary shelter.”

The humanitarian response to the disaster has been hampered by the Taliban leadership’s ban on Afghan women working for the UN in the capital, Kabul.

But women staff and those working as humanitarian responders are still able to operate in the earthquake-affected sites. “This is really essential” and has been recognised as such by the de facto authorities, Ms. Ferguson said.

UNICEF aid trucks robbed at gunpoint in Gaza City

To Gaza, where aid agencies have condemne d the theft of vital therapeutic food needed to treat thousands of starving youngsters.

Leading calls for humanitarian aid to be protected, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that “armed individuals” had robbed four of its trucks carrying desperately needed food pouches.

The incident occurred outside the agency’s compound in Gaza City, where the Israeli military’s offensive continues to intensify.

In a statement, UNICEF said that the drivers were released along with their trucks once the relief supplies had been taken.

But at least 2,700 severely and acutely malnourished children will now miss out on lifesaving nutrition support, the UN agency said, at a time when famine has been declared in northern Gaza.

Sudan crisis: surge in summary executions by all warring parties

In Sudan, reports have been coming in that at least 75 people have been killed in a drone strike on a mosque during morning prayers in El Fasher city, in the west of the war-torn country.

Images from the site of the strike show mangled metal roofing that used to provide cover for worshippers; it comes as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – or RSF – continue their push to take control of El Fasher, as they battle forces of the military government.

In a related development, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that there’s been a sharp rise in civilian killings, including summary executions, along with growing ethnic violence in Sudan.

Several major offensives have been particularly deadly, including an April offensive by the RSF on El Fasher and elsewhere in North Darfur that left at least 527 dead, and airstrikes in March by the Sudanese Armed Forces on Tora market in North Darfur that killed at least 350 civilians, including 13 members of one family.

The situation in El Fasher is dire and worsening, said OHCHR’s Li Fung:

“We continue to receive reports of civilians being killed, abducted or subjected to sexual violence while attempting to leave El Fasher. There are no safe exit routes out of the city, and civilians are trapped in a situation of impossible choices: stay in El Fasher, and risk bombardment, starvation and atrocities if the RSF overrun the city; or flee, and face the risk of summary execution, sexual violence, and abduction.”

The Sudan war began in April 2023 when the peaceful transition to civilian rule broke down and fighting erupted between the former allies-turned-rivals.

Since then, not a single ceasefire has been acted on by either of the warring parties, noted UN partner the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC.

And finally – for more on the UN General Assembly high level meeting starting Monday, don’t forget to check out our special coverage on UN News all next week. We’ll be bringing you the key developments from inside the legendary assembly hall and keeping you up to speed with diplomatic developments behind-the-scenes…go to news.un.org.

Daniel Johnson, UN News