Afghanistan Earthquake: Villagers look for survivors who have killed at least 1,000 people

Villagers rushed to fill the dead on Thursday, digging in the rubble of their homes by hand, at leastAfghanistan of a major earthquake in the east. I searched for a survivor. 1,000 people. The Talibanand the international community, who escaped their takeover, struggled to bring help to the victims of the disaster.

Under the bright red sky of Paktika, the epicenter of Wednesday's magnitude 6 earthquake, men dig a row of tombs in one village, a Muslim tradition. In one courtyard, the body was wrapped in plastic and lay to protect it from the rain that hindered its life-saving efforts. The

quake is the most deadly in Afghanistan in 20 years, officials said the potential for more casualties. An estimated 1,500 people were reported injured, according to the state-owned Bakhtar News Agency.

"They can't eat anything and are wondering what they have to eat, and it's raining," Baktar said in a video from the seismic zone. I did. "Their homes have been destroyed. Please help them, don't leave them alone."

Read more:At least 1,000 people were killed as a powerful earthquake shook Afghanistan

Hundreds of disasters Everyone is already facing growing hunger and poverty, and the situation becomes even more dire in a country where the health care system has collapsed after Tullivan regained power in the withdrawal of the United States and NATO almost 10 months ago. I am. The acquisition led to a significant blockade of international finance, and most of the world shunned the Taliban government.

How can the international humanitarian community, which has regained significant resources from the country, provide assistance, and whether the Taliban government allows it to remain a problem.

In a rare move, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhnzada sought help from around the world on Wednesday, but UN officials said the government mobilized an international search and rescue team by a global organization. He said he did not demand that he do. Get equipment from neighboring countries.

"We go forward from the Islamic Emirate and the whole country and ask to help us," said a survivor named Hakimura. "We don't have anything, we don't even have a tent to live in."

The full extent of the destruction between the villages hiding in the mountains was late to be revealed. Roads that are rutted and difficult to navigate in the best of circumstances can be severely damaged by the earthquake, and some have become impassable due to recent rain landslides. Just 175 km south of the capital Kabul, some villages in the smashed Gayan district took a day's drive to arrive.

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The walls and roofs of dozens of homes in the district collapsed in the earthquake, and villagers The whole family is rubble. Associated Press journalists counted about 50 bodies in the area alone as people placed dead in front of their homes and in the courtyard.

Much of the rubble was too big to move by hand or shovel. They said they wanted large excavators to build their remote homes. So far, there was only one bulldozer in the area.

Modern buildings can withstand magnitude 6 earthquakes elsewhere, but mudbrick houses and landslide-prone mountains in Afghanistan make such earthquakes more dangerous. Shallow quakes also tend to be more damaging, experts say Wednesday is only 10 kilometers deep.

Rescue teams rushed to the helicopter and AP journalists also saw an ambulance in the seismic zone on Thursday, but more due to the outflow of many international aid agencies from Afghanistan after the Taliban hijacking last August. Extensive relief efforts can be hampered. In addition, most governments are wary of dealing directly with the Taliban.

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Still, officials from several UN agencies said the Taliban have given them full access to the area.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter that eight trucks of food and other necessities from Pakistan have arrived in Paktika. He also said Thursday that two planes of humanitarian aid from Iran and another plane from Qatar arrived in the country.

It may be more difficult to get more direct international assistance. Many countries, including the United States, are pouring humanitarian aid into Afghanistan through the United Nations and other such organizations to keep the Taliban out of the hands.

In a breaking news Thursday, Afghanistan's state television confirmed that former enemy US President Joe Biden had condolences and promised help for the quake. According to a White House statement, Biden ordered US international aid agencies and their partners to "evaluate" options to help victims on Wednesday.

The death toll reported by Bakhtar was the same as the death toll from the 2002 earthquake in northern Afghanistan. These are the most deadly since 1998, with a magnitude 6.1 earthquake and subsequent northeastern tremors killing at least 4,500 people.

According to the neighboring Pakistani Meteorological Bureau, the quake on Wednesday centered on Paktika, about 50 km southwest of Khost.

In the adjacent Sperley district of Khost, which was also severely damaged, it was once a mud house. A man stood on top. The quake tore open the timber beams. People were sitting outside under a temporary tent made of breeze-blown blankets.

Survivors prepared to immediately bury the dead in the district, including children and toddlers. Authorities are afraid to find more dead in the future.

“Because it is a mountainous area, it is difficult to collect all the accurate information,” said Sultan Mahmod, Head of Speray District. "The information we have is gathered from the inhabitants of these areas."

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