More than 90% of people killed by western Afghanistan quake were women and children, UN says

By RIAZAT BUTT
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — U.N. officials say more than 90% of the people killed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Afghanistan were women and children. Taliban officials say more than 2,000 people of all ages and genders across Herat province died in Saturday’s quake. The chief of the UNICEF field office in the province said Thursday that women and children were more likely to have been at home when the morning quake struck. The disproportionate impact of the quake on women has left many children without mothers, raising questions about who will raise them or how to reunite them with fathers who might be out of the province or Afghanistan. Aid officials say orphanages are non-existent or rare.