Afghanistan earthquake: Switzerland pays more into UN fund
Following the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan, Switzerland is paying additional money into a United Nations relief fund. The Swiss contribution now amounts to CHF3.8 million ($4.2 million).
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Español
es
Terremoto en Afganistán: Suiza aporta más al fondo de la ONU
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has already paid CHF1.5 million into the Afghan Humanitarian Fund, the foreign ministry said on Monday. The funds will now be increased.
The fund has been administered by the UN since 2014 and makes it possible to respond to natural disasters, it said.
According to the foreign ministry website, the budget for Swiss aid to the Afghan population in the current year amounts to about CHF30 million. Just under half of the money will go to the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and international financial institutions such as the World Bank; 53% of the money goes to non-governmental organisations.
On Saturday morning several earthquakes shook the inhabitants of the Afghan border province of Herat near Iran. Within just a few hours, the earth shook nine times and more than a dozen villages were largely destroyed. The two most severe quakes had a magnitude of 6.3, according to the US earthquake observatory USGS.
According to the Afghan broadcaster Tolonews, at least 2,400 people have died so far; the UN emergency relief agency OCHA spoke of more than 1,000 dead. Several aftershocks also shook the disaster region on Monday.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
COP29: Swiss NGOs call for strong financial support
This content was published on
Ahead of COP29, Swiss NGOs call for wealthy nations to pay $1,000 billion a year to help other countries solve climate problems.
Real Swiss wages likely to rise in 2025, says UBS bank
This content was published on
Higher wages and falling inflation are likely to boost Swiss purchasing power, which will be dragged back by rising health premiums.
This content was published on
Switzerland has a new tectonic map at a scale of 1:500,000, containing updates to geometry, distribution and nomenclature of the tectonic units.
This content was published on
Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri, known for his artworks using leftover food with dirty cutlery and crockery, has passed away in Vienna at the age of 94.
Climate change tipped to alter Swiss avalanche patterns by 2100
This content was published on
Climate change is expected to result in fewer avalanches overall in Switzerland but to increase the danger of wet snow avalanches by 2100.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.