The 5.9-magnitude earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border on Wednesday left more than 1,000 dead, 3,000 injured and thousands homeless.
In some of the worst-affected districts, entire villages were razed to the ground and survivors say they can’t even find the shovels needed to bury the dead.
“There are no blankets, no tents, no shelters. Our entire water distribution system is destroyed. Everything is devastated, houses are destroyed. There is literally nothing to eat,” Zaitullah Ghurziwal told an AFP team. 21 years old, in a village in the province of Paktika.
Authorities estimate that close to 10,000 houses were destroyed, a very alarming figure in an area where the average household houses 20 people.
Since Wednesday, there have been several tremors. Five people were killed this Friday morning by one of them in Gayan.
The remote location of that region of Afghanistan and the weather have complicated rescue missions. The rains caused landslides, which slowed down the arrival of aid.
Communications were also affected, since the earthquake knocked down telecommunications towers and power lines.
Still, at least seven trucks from the UN World Food Program (WFP)laden with tents and food, arrived in the Gayan village of Wuchkai on Friday morning after a day’s journey from Kabul, AFP journalists noted.
Afghanistan earthquake
Photo: AFP
The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was also present in the area, with two trucks loaded with stores and medicine.
The disaster poses a logistical challenge for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, isolated internationally by its radical Islamist regime that discriminates against women and girls in particular.
The country lost the foreign aid on which it depended and even Before the disaster that occurred on Wednesday, the UN warned of a humanitarian crisis that was looming over the entire population.
The earthquake generated a wave of solidarity from abroad, but concerns are growing about how this aid will be used.
“The distribution of aid will be transparent,” a government spokesman, Bilal Karimi, told AFP.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has dispatched tents, blankets and plastic sheets and the WFP has delivered nearly 14,000 rations and the World Health Organization has sent 10 tons of medical supplies, enough to carry out 5,400 surgeries.
The European Union (EU) estimated that 270,000 people living in the areas affected by the earthquake would need assistance and released an initial aid of one million euros.
Pakistan, Iran Y qatar They also sent help. Y USAwhich withdrew from Afghanistan in late August after 20 years of war, said it is working with humanitarian agencies to send medical teams.
The Save the Children organization estimates that more than 118,000 minors are affected by the disaster.
“Many children are now probably without clean water to drink, without food and without a place to sleep,” the organization explained.
Afghanistan frequently experiences earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, located at the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Source: Ambito
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