Af quake: Villagers bury dead, dig for survivors
GAYAN, AFGHANISTAN: Villagers rushed to bury the dead on Thursday and dug by hand through the rubble of their homes in search of survivors of a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that killed at least 1,000 people.
The Taliban and the international community that fled their takeover struggled to bring help to the disaster’s victims.
Under a leaden sky in Paktika province, which was the epicentre of Wednesday’s magnitude 6 earthquake, men dug a line of graves in one village, as they tried to lay the dead to rest quickly in line with Muslim tradition.
In one courtyard, bodies lay wrapped in plastic to protect them from the rains that are hampering relief efforts for the living.
The quake was Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, and officials said the toll could rise. An estimated 1,500 others were reported injured, the state-run Bakhtar News Agency said.
“They don’t have anything to eat, they are wondering what they can have to eat, and it is also raining,” a Bakhtar reporter said in footage from the quake zone. “Their houses are destroyed. Please help them, don’t leave them alone.”
Getting information from the ground is very difficult because of bad networks,” Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of information for badly hit Paktika province, told AFP on Thursday, adding there was no immediate update to the death toll. “The area has been affected by floods because of heavy rains last night... it is also difficult to access the affected sites.”
The disaster poses a huge logistical challenge for Afghanistan’s new Taliban government, which has isolated itself from much of the world by introducing hardline Islamist rule that subjugates women and girls.
The aid-dependent country saw the bulk of its foreign assistance cut off in the wake of the Taliban takeover last August, and even before the earthquake the United Nations warned of a humanitarian crisis that threatened the entire population.
In a rare move, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzadah, pleaded for help from the world on Wednesday.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, told reporters nearly 2,000 homes were likely destroyed - a huge number in an area where the average household size is more than 20 people. Rescuers rushed in by helicopter - and AP journalists also saw ambulances in the quake zone on Thursday.
Aid starts arriving
AFGHAN GOVT SPOKESMAN TWEETED THAT AID FLIGHTS HAD LANDED FROM QATAR AND IRAN, WHILE PAKISTAN HAD SENT TRUCKS CARRYING SUPPLIES.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted on Thursday that aid flights had landed from Qatar and Iran, while Pakistan had sent trucks carrying tents, medical supplies and food across the land border.
The United States, 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.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the global agency has “fully mobilised” to help, deploying health teams and supplies of medicine, food, trauma kits and emergency shelter to the quake zone.
South Korea plans to provide $1 million in humanitarian assistance to victims of an earthquake in Afghanistan that killed 1,000 people, Seoul’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The Japanese government plans to provide assistance to Afghanistan, a government spokesperson said on Thursday
Tomas Niklasson, European Union special envoy for Afghanistan, tweeted: “The EU is monitoring the situation and stands ready to coordinate and provide EU emergency assistance to people and communities affected.”