THE United Nations World Food Programme appealed on Wednesday for $19 million (£15.6m) to provide emergency assistance to tens of thousands of people affected by a series of devastating earthquakes that have rocked western Afghanistan.

WFP deputy Afghanistan director Ana Maria Salhuana said that it was helping survivors but it urgently needed more funding because “we are having to take this food from an already severely underfunded programme.”

The group said that it is working to provide emergency food assistance to 100,000 people in the region.

“Disasters like these earthquakes pound communities who are already barely able to feed themselves back into utter destitution,” the WFP said.

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck part of western Afghanistan on Sunday, after thousands of people died and entire villages were flattened by major quakes a week earlier. 

It was the fourth quake that the United States Geological Survey has measured at 6.3 magnitude in the same area in just over a week.

The initial earthquakes on October 7 flattened whole villages in Herat province and were among the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history.

The WFP said: “An estimated 25,000 buildings have been destroyed.

“The survivors are currently sleeping in tents next to the rubble of their homes, desperate and afraid of further earthquakes and aftershocks.”

The latest quake was centred about 19 miles outside the city of Herat, the capital of Herat province, and was four miles below the surface, the US Geological Survey said.

UN officials said that more than 90 per cent of the people killed were women and children as the quakes struck during the daytime while many of the men in the region were working outdoors.

Taliban officials said that the earlier quakes killed more than 2,000 people across the province. 

The epicentre was in Zenda Jan district, where the majority of casualties and damage occurred.

The WFP said that affected families will need help for months with winter just weeks away. It said that if there is funding, the emergency response will be complemented by longer-term resilience programmes so vulnerable communities are able to rebuild their livelihoods.

The UN body was forced earlier this year to reduce the amount of food families receive and to cut 10 million people in Afghanistan from life-saving food assistance due to a massive funding shortfall.

The initial quake, numerous aftershocks and a third 6.3-magnitude quake on Wednesday flattened villages, destroying hundreds of mud-brick homes.