13 May 2015 – Yesterday, a new earthquake measuring 7.3 in magnitude struck Nepal, killing at least 40 people, and coming just just two weeks after a powerful tremor killed more than 8,000 thousand people and devastated much of the country’s infrastructure.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that some buildings damaged by the 25 April quake collapsed today in Gorkha District and Chautara (Sindhupalchowk District).

Landslides were reported in Langtang Region in the Himalayas. Many areas around the epicentre are particularly susceptible to landslides. Five people were reported rescued in Charikot. Reports of people buried under rubble are also coming in from across the country, including from Tatopani.

The existing camps in Chautara remain open and are accommodating additional people. People in other areas are also expected to remain in the open air.

Monsoon season approaching: a race against time

OCHA also announced that emergency responders are racing against time to reach affected populations in the mountainous country's most remote regions.

“We have a short window to reach people in need,” Jamie McGoldrick, the UN's top relief official in the Asian state confirmed Saturday in a press release. “With the monsoon season just around the corner, our imperative is to provide communities with roofs over their heads and meet their basic needs.”

Relief efforts are tackling Nepal's challenging topography by combining standard aid delivery with competencies and traditional methods of the local communities in order to speed up the flow of humanitarian aid ahead of the monsoon season anticipated to begin in the next four to six weeks.

Your help is needed: donate now!

You can aid the UN efforts in Nepal.

To do so, first read OCHA’s Guide to Giving.

Afterwards, if you are donating as an individual, corporation or foundation, you can make your donation to the Central Emergency Response Fund via the following website.

To help provide relief to the 1.1 million affected children living in the heaviest affected districts of Nepal, or to help raise the required US$116.5 million to provide food for 1.4 million people for three months, you can make specified donations to UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP).

What can be realized using your donation? According to UNICEF:

• €99 = could provide 230 life saving water salts to children who need hydration in an emergency
• €49 = could provide 5 families with emergency water kits including containers, buckets, soap and water purification tablets – enabling them to collect, store and purify water
• €23 = could provide high-energy therapeutic milk for 5 toddlers and give them the vitamins and minerals they need to survive

More information

For additional UN Agency-specific information on the Nepal relief efforts, please see the respective World Health Organization (WHO) and World Food Programme (WFP) pages.