Quake-struck Ecuador in dire need of humanitarian aid: UNHCR

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported Friday that some 73,000 people have been displaced as a result of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Ecuador's northern coast on April 16, while aftershocks are preventing populations from rebuilding their lives.

With over 30,000 people, many of them women and children, living in collective centers, the refugee agency warned that protection mechanisms and community-based strategies must be strengthened to protect the most vulnerable.

Thousands more are being hosted by vulnerable families whose means are already overstretched, while some 15,000 people have seen their access to basic services and social programs restricted by the loss of their identity documents.

As many as 17,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mainly from neighboring Colombia and living in areas most affected by the disaster, have been challenged by increased vulnerability in a context of limited socioeconomic opportunities.

Only 15 percent of UNHCR's 73-million-U.S.-dollar flash appeal launched on April 20 to provide critical assistance to some 350,000 people has been funded so far.

According to figures, the violent seism that rattled the South-American country last month resulted in over 660 deaths and a further 16,600 injured. Enditem