GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP) – Survivors on Thursday hand -dug a powerful earthquake in villages in eastern Afghanistan that killed at least 1,000 people as the Taliban and the fleeing international community fought to help disaster victims.
In the affected district of Guyana in the province of Paktika, villagers are standing on top of mud brick that used to be a house. Others carefully crossed the dirty roads, smashing broken wooden beam walls to make their way.
The quake was the most devastating earthquake in Afghanistan in the past two decades, and officials said the death toll could rise. About 1,500 people were injured, according to the state news agency.
A natural disaster caused by a magnitude 6 earthquake is causing more problems for the country where it is in Millions of people are faced with increasing hunger and poverty And the health system has collapsed since recovering of the Taliban came to power nearly 10 months ago during the withdrawal of the United States and NATO. The takeover led to the cessation of vital international funding and much of the world shunned the Taliban government.
How and whether the Taliban will allow world aid remains debate, as rescuers without heavy equipment dig through the rubble with their hands.
“We ask the Islamic Emirate and the whole country to come and help us,” said the survivor, who called him Hakimullah. “We just don’t have and don’t have, not even a tent to live in”.
The full extent of the destruction between the villages hidden in the mountains was slowly announced. Roads damaged at optimum and difficult to navigate can be severely damaged and landslides have made access difficult due to recent rains.
Although modern buildings can withstand magnitude 6 earthquakes elsewhere, houses covered in Afghan mud and brick and mountains that crumble easily make such earthquakes even more dangerous.
Rescuers arrived by helicopter, but aid could be thwarted by the withdrawal of several international aid agencies from Afghanistan after it came under Taliban control in August. Furthermore, most governments have been wary of dealing directly with the Taliban.
As a sign of joint work between the Taliban and the rest of the world, the Taliban has not formally requested the UN mobilization of international rescue teams or equipment from neighboring countries to add several dozen ambulances and several helicopter sent. This was stated by Afghan authorities Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Representative of the UN for Afghanistan.
However, officials from several UN agencies said the Taliban was giving them full access to the area.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that eight food trucks and other basic necessities had arrived in Paktika from Pakistan. He also said on Thursday that two humanitarian aid planes arrived in the country from Iran and another from Qatar.
Getting more direct international aid can be more difficult: Many countries, including the United States, send humanitarian aid to Afghanistan through the United Nations and other similar organizations to prevent money from falling into their hands. of the Taliban.
According to the Meteorological Department of neighboring Pakistan, the epicenter is located approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the city of Khost in Paktika province. Experts determined that its depth was only 10 kilometers (6 miles). Surface earthquakes cause more damage.
The death toll, according to the Bakhtari news agency, is equivalent to the 2002 earthquake in northern Afghanistan. It was the deadliest since 1998, when a 6.1 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks in the far northeast killed at least 4,500 people.
The quake shook the landslide-prone region on Wednesday, with many old and dilapidated buildings.
In the Sperei district of the neighboring province of Khost, which was also damaged, men once stood on top of a mud house. The earthquake was scattered on wooden beams. People are sitting outside under temporary tents made of breeze, blowing in the breeze.
Survivors quickly prepared the district’s dead, including children and infants, for burial. Officials fear more casualties in the coming days.
“It is difficult to gather all the accurate information because it is a mountainous region,” said Sultan Mahmud, head of the Sper district. “The information we have is what we have gathered from the residents of these areas.
Associated Press writers John Gambrel in Dubai, UAE, and Rahim Fayez and Munir Ahmed contributed to Islamabad in this report.
Source: Huffpost
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