On January 2, a 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit 20 villages in Vanj district, 230 kilometers east of Dushanbe and 80 kilometers north of Khorog, the region’s administrative capital, in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO). Hundreds of people became homeless in the subzero weather. There were no reported fatalities. The initial information the authorities provided to the mass media reported that 20,000 were left homeless by the disaster. So far, local authorities report that 184 houses have been destroyed and nearly 1,000 damaged, leaving 8,000 people homeless. An additional thirty administrative buildings, including one hospital and five schools have been damaged or destroyed. Also, several kilometers of roads which lead to the affected district and power lines were damaged or blocked by rockslides. The costs of the damages are estimated to US$ 1.5 million. The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province is located in the Pamir Mountains and has a long border with Afghanistan. There are only two roads connecting the Pamir with the center of the country. One of these is permanently closed for the winter season. The remaining road is frequently blocked by snowfall and avalanches during the season. Most isolated districts of the province are inaccessible during winter. Accessibility by airplane and helicopter also depends on weather conditions. Currently, heavy snowfall impedes the provision of humanitarian aid. Rescue teams and humanitarian organizations can hardly get to some of the isolated destroyed villages. Residents of the destroyed or severely damaged houses stay with neighbors and relatives or in schools and other public buildings. Some tents are provided by international organizations. However, the installation of all winter tents has not been completed and some people use summer tents. In Gishkhun village, 286 people were moved and still stay in the school building. The need for medical and humanitarian assistance is urgent. Regular tremors of an average magnitude of 3 on the Richter scale continue in the Vanj district. While small in magnitude, the frequency of these aftershocks is instilling a fear of additional damages among the population. Due to the continued tremors, people are not sure whether it is safe to sleep indoors and avoid returning to their intact houses. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe said that between 500 and 2,300 people were forced to evacuate either fully or partially from their destroyed homes. A tremor measuring 4 on the Richter scale took place on January 9 close to the epicenter of an earthquake that occurred on January 2 and resulted in an increased number of totally destroyed houses. The tremor also caused another rockslide and blocked three kilometers of the Dushanbe-Khorog road. Roads are being cleared every day but the risk of falling rocks remains high and the stretch of road between the Vanj district center and affected villages is hazardous. According to a specialist with the Principal Department on Geology of the Republic of Tajikistan, earthquakes are recurring phenomena in this region since 2007. After last year’s earthquake in the same region, geologists detected that such frequent earth tremors are caused by seismic movements in the region. Small-scale earth tremors occur in the Vanj district almost every month. Okila Nayzabekova is an inhabitant of the destroyed village of Gishkhun, who still lives in the school building with several hundred other inhabitants. “For the time being, we have not received any help. Most of the affected households stay in the school building. We are afraid to stay indoors, but it is -30 degrees Celsius outside. We do not have enough food, fuel or firewood,” she said. All in all, the immediate humanitarian needs are largely met, although considerably more relief work is needed to move displaced families from schools, mosques and host families to tents which will provide basic shelter until their houses can be rebuilt or repaired. The Government admitted its incapability to provide required help to the population and asked international organizations and donors for humanitarian aid and even for construction materials to allow families to begin rebuilding their houses by themselves. Plans for the movement of households from areas designated as unsafe to normal places have not yet been designed.