The humanitarian impact of Colombia’s powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake could be significantly greater than currently known, with emergency teams yet to fully assess remote and conflict-affected communities, a senior United Nations official warned on Tuesday.
UN Resident Coordinator in Colombia Maria Jose Torres Macho said the earthquake, centred in the Pacific region of Choco, had affected 14 of the country’s 32 departments.
Speaking at a UN briefing, Torres Macho cautioned that casualty and damage assessments remained preliminary and were changing as information arrived from affected regions.
She said the earthquake’s impact appeared greater than initially anticipated, with authorities having a much clearer picture of conditions in major cities than in isolated rural communities.
“We don’t know exactly what is the impact in the rural, remote areas,” she said, warning that there could be considerably more damage requiring a humanitarian response.
Search-and-rescue operations remain the immediate priority, while humanitarian organisations are preparing assistance covering temporary shelter, healthcare, food security and protection.
Torres Macho said Choco and Valle del Cauca, including Cali, were among the areas already receiving humanitarian assistance.
The UN is also using remote-sensing technology to assess structural and socioeconomic damage and is deploying additional personnel from Bogota to affected regions.
She said Colombian authorities had invited the UN to supplement the government’s emergency response, with existing resources being redirected towards affected communities and additional humanitarian funding under consideration.
The warning comes as rescue teams continue searching damaged and collapsed structures, while authorities work to establish the full scale of destruction beyond Colombia’s major urban centres.