Death toll of children in Afghanistan earthquake grows to 155

• The majority of youngsters perished in Paktika’s Gayan district, which remained in ruins.
• The earthquake has also left an estimated 65 orphaned or unaccompanied children.
• It has become a test of the Taliban’s ability to run the country and the international community’s willingness to help.

GAYAN, Afghanistan: At least 155 children were killed in last week’s deadly earthquake in southeastern Afghanistan, according to the UN, as the magnitude of the largest earthquake to strike the impoverished nation in two decades became clear.

The United Nations’ humanitarian coordination agency, OCHA, said on Sunday that 250 more children were hurt in the magnitude 6 earthquake that hit hilly villages in the Paktika and Khost provinces near the border with Pakistan, destroying homes and causing landslides.

Read more: Afghanistan earthquake survivors lack food

The Taliban in Afghanistan say that 1,150 people have died and hundreds more have been hurt because of the earthquake. The UN says that 770 people have died, but warns that this number could still go up.

The earthquake has also left an estimated 65 orphaned or unaccompanied children, according to the UN humanitarian agency.

After decades of war, famine, poverty, and an economic collapse, this is the latest disaster to hit Afghanistan. It has become a test of the Taliban’s ability to run the country and of the international community’s willingness to help.

Foreign aid ceased almost immediately when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last August, as the United States and its NATO allies were withdrawing their forces.

Read more: Deadly earthquakes in Afghanistan

Former insurgents have resisted pressure by placing limits on the freedoms of women and girls reminiscent of their initial time in power in the late 1990s, provoking a backlash from the West.

The Taliban, aware of their limitations, have requested external assistance. Afghanistan is on the verge of starvation, but the United Nations and an array of overstretched assistance organisations in the nation have taken action.

Aid convoys have filtered into the outlying areas despite funding and access restrictions.

Monday, the UN agency for children said that it is trying to get kids who were separated from their families because of the earthquake back together with them.

Read more: Biden directs USAID and other agencies to help the victims in Afghanistan