Urgent plea for quake victims
SHARAN: The Taliban has asked the world for help as desperate rescuers battled against the clock under pouring rain to pull survivors from the rubble after a powerful quake struck a mountainous border region of Afghanistan, killing at least 1000 people.
The 5.9-magnitude quake struck hardest in the rugged east, where people already lead hardscrabble lives in the grip of a humanitarian crisis made worse since the Taliban takeover in August.
“People are digging grave after grave,” said Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in hard-hit Paktika, adding that at least 1000 people had died in that province.
He said more than 1500 people were injured, many critically. “People are still trapped under the rubble,” he told journalists.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said the global agency had “fully mobilised” to help, deploying health teams and supplies of medicine, food, trauma kits and emergency shelter to the quake zone.
The death toll is expected to climb much higher as news of casualties continued to filter in from hard-to-reach areas in the mountains.
The earthquake struck areas that were already suffering the effects of heavy rain, causing rockfalls and mudslides that hampered rescue efforts.
“It was a horrible situation,” said Arup Khan, 22, who is recovering at a hospital in Paktika’s provincial capital Sharan.
“There were cries everywhere. The children and my family were under the mud.”
Sharan Hospital director Mohammad Yahya Wiar said
they were doing their best to treat everyone.
“Our country is poor and lacks resources,” he said. “This is a humanitarian crisis. It is like a tsunami.”
Photographs and video posted on social media showed scores of badly damaged houses in remote areas. The UN humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, told reporters nearly 2000 homes were likely destroyed.
Footage released by the Taliban showed people in one village digging a long trench to bury the dead, who by Islamic tradition must be laid to rest facing Mecca.
The disaster poses a huge challenge for the Taliban, which has largely isolated the country with its hardline Islamist policies, particularly subjugation of women and girls.
Even before the Taliban
takeover, Afghanistan’s emergency response teams were stretched to deal with the natural disasters that frequently strike the country.
But with only a handful of airworthy planes and helicopters left since they returned to power, any immediate response to the latest catastrophe is further limited.
“The government is working within its capabilities,” tweeted Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official.
“We hope that the international community and aid agencies will also help our people in this dire situation.”
Another Taliban official, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said the government was “financially unable to assist the people to the extent that is needed”.
The US, whose troops helped topple the initial Taliban regime and remained in Afghanistan for two decades
until Washington pulled them out last year, was “deeply saddened” by the earthquake, the White House said.
“President Biden is monitoring developments and has directed USAID (US Agency for International Development) and other federal government partners to assess US response options to help those most affected,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
The European Union was also quick to offer assistance.
Tomas Niklasson, EU special envoy for Afghanistan, tweeted: “The EU is monitoring the situation and stands ready to co-ordinate and provide EU emergency assistance to people and communities affected.”
Neighbouring Pakistan, where one person was killed in the quake, said it too would send emergency aid.