The UN response: Key facts

• OCHA has coordinated relief from 27 countries, involving more than 2,200 rescuers and 140 search dogs.
• Three UN field hospitals are operating in La Guiara, one of the worst-hit areas.
• UNICEF says 1.8 million people need humanitarian assistance, including 680,000 children.
• IOM warns up to 6.76 million people could be affected; satellite mapping shows nearly a third of buildings in the port city of Catia La Mar have been damaged.
• UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has called an estimate of 50,000 people still missing “terrifyingly plausible.”

“Destruction is all around,” said Stephanie Hochstetter, Country Director in Venezuela for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), speaking from quake-hit La Guaira, located roughly 40 minutes north of the capital Caracas. “Many people have lost their lives. There are thousands of injured, and hundreds of buildings destroyed or severely damaged,” she added. “People will be in great need of food.”

The confirmed death toll is at least 1,450 people but that number is likely far short of the actual figure, as tens of thousands more are still believed to be missing. At least 3,200 people have been injured, with numbers rising all the time.

In one of the worst-hit locations, the coastal state of La Guaira, Mireya Quesada Sojo described the huge challenge facing civilian rescuers like her. All around are great piles of collapsed debris and twisted masonry where Mireya’s relatives were living when the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes hit, less than a minute apart. 

“At first, we started digging with our bare hands, trying to recover our family members,” she says, looking up from a baseball cap fixed atop greying hair, spectacles, dust-covered jeans and a T-shirt. “We know they are no longer alive, but we just have to be able to see them again, even if it’s sad. So, we are asking for assistance to see if we can dig them out. People have come to help and we are deeply grateful.”

Since the very first hours of the crisis, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, has helped to coordinate the international response provided by 27 countries and involving more than 2,200 rescuers and 140 search dogs.  

The agency tweeted that families are searching for loved ones “often through dangerous rubble and against impossible odds”.

In addition to search and rescue coordination, the agency provides support for information management, logistics and communications. Non-governmental and private sector partners are also on site, providing urgently needed shelter, water, food, medicine and protection. 

OCHA also continues to work closely with the Government, the military and civil protection at coordination centres including in La Guiara, where the UN has set up three field hospitals and teams are preparing support for people unable to return home.

Food access already a top concern

As part of the emergency food response, WFP reported having more than 3,000 metric tons of food in country, with supplies enough to feed more than 10,000 families for two months. “We are also looking at the fastest ways to mobilize further food assistance, and establishing response priorities across affected states,” the agency said in a statement on Monday.

The quake disaster “adds further hardship in a country facing overlapping needs”, WFP stressed, noting that access to enough food remains a top concern for 80 per cent of the population

According to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, about 1.8 million people need humanitarian assistance including 680,000 youngsters.

In comments to the media at the weekend, the UN emergency relief chief described the damage to roads, airports and buildings as “overwhelming”. Tom Fletcher also said that an initial estimate of 50,000 people missing remained “terrifyingly plausible”, although not all of those who have yet to be found are trapped under the rubble.

House of cards

In total, some 6.76 million people could be affected by the earthquakes, including two million in Caracas alone, the UN agency for migration, IOM, has warned. It highlighted the scale of the disaster on Monday using satellite mapping analysis from Microsoft showing that 31.5 per cent of buildings in Catia La Mar, a major port city in northern Venezuela, have been damaged. 

Early assessments such as these help humanitarian responders identify which communities need help most urgently, including the delivery of life-saving assistance.

Latest official assessments indicate that nearly 190 buildings collapsed when the earthquakes hit on 24 June, with more than 770 impacted in total. Witnesses have reportedly likened these structures to “houses of cards” or “layered pastries” whose destruction has left thousands homeless or trapped beneath the rubble.

Venezuelan authorities confirmed on Monday that at least 1,719 people have died following the earthquakes of 24 June, with some 5,000 more injured. Around 12,000 people have been displaced, and officials have yet to confirm a figure for the missing.

Survivors still emerging

In a press briefing for correspondents in New York, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Venezuela, Gianluca Rampolla, said that seven people were pulled alive from the rubble on Sunday as search efforts continue. 

He also reported that the UN and Venezuelan authorities had agreed to procure 10,000 body bags in anticipation of the death toll rising further.

Seven states have been affected, but the greatest concentration of casualties is in La Guaira state and the Distrito Capital of Caracas. Around 2,500 structures were damaged, many of which have collapsed entirely.

Conditions on the ground remain hazardous. Approximately 500 aftershocks have been recorded since the initial earthquakes, including a magnitude 5.2 tremor in the early hours of Monday morning, while a tropical wave is threatening to bring heavy rains to affected areas.

“We continue to operate in a high-risk environment,” Mr. Rampolla said.

Over 2,000 rescuers on the ground

More than 2,000 rescue workers from 27 countries – along with over 160 search dogs – are currently deployed across more than 40 teams. 

Although search and rescue operations typically focus on the first 72 hours, teams have extended their work after continuing to receive signs of life from beneath the rubble and locating survivors beyond that window.

“Together with the search and rescue operations, we are focusing, together with the Government, on providing emergency healthcare, shelter, food assistance, water and sanitation, and logistical support to ensure not only the storage but also the distribution of all the supplies arriving in the country, as well as protection,” Mr. Rampolla said, adding that the UN is working on a new emergency appeal to supplement its existing humanitarian plan.

‘There are people who need a hug’

The UN is preparing three assistance centres in La Guaira for families who have lost their homes, offering medical care, food, water, sanitation, protection and psychosocial support.

Vanessa May, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Venezuela, told UN News that many people had lost all sense of stability. “Moving from having a house, from having a home, to being in a shelter or temporary accommodation is not going to be easy,” she said.

Ms. May stressed that emotional support would be as essential as food, water or medical care. “There are people who need a hug,” she said, describing families waiting for news of loved ones, and others who already know their relatives remain buried under the debris.

‘This is going to take time’

Once search operations conclude, the UN and its partners will carry out rapid assessments to identify needs, including those of older people and persons with disabilities. 

Debris removal and early recovery will follow, with particular attention to damage to schools and hospitals.

Ms. May said the reconstruction phase would require working with authorities to determine where displaced families can be resettled and conducting soil surveys before any relocation. “This is going to take time,” she said.

She attributed the speed of the initial UN response to the humanitarian architecture established in Venezuela since 2019, which brought together UN agencies, national and international NGOs, the Red Cross and other actors. Coordinating the surge in public donations – with many individuals and organisations arriving spontaneously at affected areas – has been among the key logistical challenges.

“Don’t let that solidarity stop,” Ms. May said, urging that attention on Venezuela be sustained well beyond the initial weeks of disaster recovery.

The Sudanese authorities announced on Monday that the Adre border crossing – critical for humanitarian aid delivery into the Darfur and Kordofan regions – will remain available through 30 September. 

“This will continue to allow us to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need, despite the ongoing insecurity,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in New York. 

Ongoing clashes at the border 

The announcement comes as armed clashes continue near the Chadian border, with some humanitarian partners reporting that they have suspended operations due to the worsening security conditions and communications disruptions. 

Despite the volatility, humanitarian partners continue to deliver assistance, especially across Darfur.  

“In West Darfur, for example, our partners last week completed cash distributions to 250 families,” he said.  “In addition, general food assistance was delivered, reaching more than 42,000 people with monthly food rations.”  

Conflict, cholera and constraints 

As cholera continues to rise in West Kordofan, aid partners are also scaling up by operating cholera treatment facilities, deploying rapid response teams, strengthening surveillance and water chlorination, and distributing cholera supplies supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

As of 20 June, there were 838 suspected cases and seven confirmed cases, including 117 deaths, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean wrote in a tweet. 

“Although the number of new cases is beginning to decline, access to healthcare and humanitarian assistance remains severely constrained,” she added, warning that “disrupted health services, unsafe water and poor sanitation, insecurity and population displacement are creating conditions for the disease to spread.”

Continued drone attacks in El Obeid 

Meanwhile, the situation in El Obeid remains concerning as drone attacks continue for a third consecutive week.  

A drone strike on 27 June reportedly hit areas near a school for girls, injuring at least eight students, according to local sources. 

“We once again call on all parties to the conflict to ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure and allow unimpeded humanitarian access wherever it is needed,” the UN Spokesperson underscored.