ISLAMABAD (AP) — Almost 100,000 children in Afghanistan are in dire need of support, three months after earthquakes devastated the country’s west, the U.N. children’s agency said Monday.

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Herat province on Oct. 7 and a second strong quake struck the same province days later, on Oct. 11, killing more than 1,000 people. The majority of those dead in the quakes in Zinda Jan and Injil districts were women and children, and 21,000 homes were destroyed, UNICEF said in a statement.

“The atmosphere in these villages is thick with suffering even 100 days after the earthquakes in western Afghanistan when families lost absolutely everything,” said Fran Equiza, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.

“Children are still trying to cope with the loss and trauma. Schools and health centers, which children depend upon, are damaged beyond repair, or destroyed completely,” he added. “As if this was not enough, winter has taken hold and temperatures hover below freezing,” Equiza said. “Children and families without homes live in life-threatening conditions at night, with no way to heat their temporary shelters.”

UNICEF said it urgently needs $1.4 billion in 2024 to meet the humanitarian and basic needs of 19.4 million Afghans, half of the population.

The Taliban’s failure to invest in public services has contributed to the deterioration of basic services, hindering the ability of vulnerable communities to recover from shocks and build resilience, the agency added..

“We are grateful to our donor partners who mobilized resources quickly, enabling UNICEF to respond within days to the urgent needs of children and their families in Herat,” Equiza said.

But more help is needed “to ensure that children not only survive the winter but have a chance to thrive in the months and years to come,” he added.

Daniel Timme, head of communications for UNICEF in Afghanistan, said schools, homes, health facilities and water systems were destroyed.

“We have money coming in but it’s not enough. These communities need to be independent again. It’s not enough to put out the fire. We need to make it (Afghanistan) more resilient,” Timme said.

Separately and for all of Afghanistan, UNICEF said Monday that 23.3 million people, including 12.6 million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance” in 2024, “mainly due to the residual impacts of a protracted conflict, extreme climate shocks and the country’s severe economic decline.”

Associated Press writer Riazat Butt in Islamabad contributed to this report.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A senior Pakistani politician met the Taliban supreme leader in Afghanistan, the politician’s office said Saturday. It’s the second publicly known meeting between a foreign official and the reclusive Hibatullah Akhundzada, who rarely appears in public and seldom leaves the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

It’s also the first known meeting between Akhundzada and a Pakistani delegation.

Fazlur Rehman is the first senior Pakistani politician to visit Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021. His Jamiat Ulema Islam party is known for backing them.

The Taliban have not confirmed the meeting with Akhundzada. Rehman’s party did not say if it was in Kandahar or the capital Kabul.

Rehman went to Afghanistan in an effort to reduce tensions between the two countries. Pakistan last November began expelling foreigners living in the country without documents, mostly Afghans, to the fury of the Taliban. The two sides have also traded blame over an increase in militant attacks in Pakistan.

Rehman’s office released the text of an interview he gave to the Taliban-controlled Radio Television of Afghanistan.

“The meeting with Hibatullah Akhundzada has been very positive,” he said, according to the text. “I received great support from Mullah Hibatullah, for which I am grateful. We have to move forward now by putting an end to old resentments.”

Confirmation of the meeting did not appear in the TV interview, which was broadcast on Saturday night.

Rehman said he did not go to Afghanistan on behalf of the Pakistani government, which knew about his visit, but he said he had its approval.

A spokesperson for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said last week that Rehman was visiting Afghanistan in a private capacity at the invitation of authorities.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan effectively closed a key northwestern border crossing with Afghanistan to truck drivers on Saturday, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said.

Noor Mohammad Hanif, director of Information and Culture department in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province said that officials at the Torkham began asking for passports and visas from Afghan drivers.

Truckers have for years been able to pass the border without documents so they generally do not have them.

Hanif said that, in response, Afghanistan is now asking Pakistani drivers for passports and visas.

In a separate statement, the Nangarhar governor’s office said that officials from both sides are in talks to solve the problem, and a “decision will be made soon,” it added.

The Torkham border crossing has been closed a number of times in recent months, including in September when it was shut for nine days due to clashes between border forces.

On Saturday, dozens of trucks carrying perishable items, including vegetables and fruits, waited on each side of the border for the reopening of the crossing, which is a vital commercial artery and a trade route to Central Asian countries for Pakistan.

Pakistan is concerned about the presence in Afghanistan of the Pakistani Taliban, which is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan has said many Pakistani Taliban leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and have been emboldened to carry out more attacks on security forces in Pakistan.

The Afghan Taliban government insists it does not allow the Pakistani Taliban to use its soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.

This comes just days after one of Pakistan’s most senior politicians, Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema Islam party is known for backing the Afghan Taliban, visited Kabul in an attempt to reduce lingering tensions between the two countries.

Rehman was the first senior Pakistani politician to visit Kabul since the Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from the country after 20 years of war.

Tensions also exist around Pakistan’s ongoing expulsion of Afghans.

Pakistan has deported more than half a million Afghans without valid papers in recent months. Pakistan has long hosted about 1.7 million Afghans, most of whom fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation. More than half a million fled Afghanistan when the Taliban seized power.