Afghanistan, Gayan — Villagers rushed to fill the dead on Thursday,digging in the rubble of the house by hand,powerful I searched for a survivor of a great earthquake. In eastern Afghanistan , state media reported killing 1,000 people. The Taliban and the international community, who escaped the takeover, struggled to help the victims.
Under the bright red sky of Paktika, the epicenter of Wednesday's magnitude 6 earthquake, a man digs a grave in a village in an attempt to quickly rest the dead in line with Islamic tradition. I did. In one courtyard, the body was wrapped in plastic and lay to protect it from the rain that hindered its life-saving efforts.
The state-owned Bakhtar News Agency reported the death toll and said an estimated 1,500 people were injured. In the first independent count, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that about 770 people were killed in Paktika and the neighboring state of Khost.
It is not clear how the total was obtained given the difficulty of accessing and communicating with the affected villages hidden in the distant hillsides. In both severe cases, the Afghanistan earthquake has become the most deadly in 20 years, and authorities have continued to warn that the number may still increase.
"They have nothing to eat, so I wonder what they can do. I have to eat and it's raining, "Baktar's reporter said in a video from the earthquake zone. "Their homes have been destroyed. Help them, don't leave them alone."
Disaster Million people are already starving Bringing more misery in countries facing increasing poverty , the health care system collapsed after Tullivan regained power almost 10 months ago The question is how the international humanitarian community, which has pulled back significant resources from the country in the withdrawal of the United States and NATO, can provide assistance, and how much the Tullivan government will support. Please allow me to remain. The Taliban takeover has led to significant international financial blockades, and most governments remain wary of dealing directly with the Taliban.
UN agencies and other organizations operating in Afghanistan have said they have sent supplies such as medical kits, tents and plastic tarpaulins to the area, but the entire village has been severely damaged. Because I received it, my needs are immeasurable.
"We are out in the Islamic Emirate and all over the country to help We ask you to give us, "said the survivor who named him Hakimura. "We don't have anything, we don't even have a tent to live in."
Search and rescue continued to be a priority. In the hit Gayan district, 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.
On Wednesday, UN officials mobilized an international search and rescue team and mobilized equipment from neighboring countries, despite a rare plea from Leader of the Islamic Hibatullah Akhnzada. He said he did not require it to be obtained. For help from the world.
UN agencies face a $ 3 billion shortage of funds to Afghanistan this year, and UN refugee spokesman Peter Kessler has a difficult decision as to who will be helped. Said to mean.
In addition to political and financial concerns, to remote villages assistance. 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. Although 110 miles south of the capital Kabul, some villages in the Gayan district arrived by car over a day.
Rescuers rushed to the helicopter and Associated Press journalists saw an ambulance in the seismic zone on Thursday, but it will be difficult to deliver heavier equipment.
The walls and roofs of dozens of Gayan houses collapsed in the earthquake, and villagers said the entire family was buried under 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.
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 6 miles deep.
Despite the challenges, some UN agency officials said Access to the areas that the Taliban said gave them completely.
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 avoid spending money on the Taliban.
In a breaking news Thursday, Afghanistan's state television confirmed that his 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.
Wednesday's quake hit Paktika, about 31 miles southwest of Pakistan. It occurred mainly in. According to the neighboring Pakistan Meteorological Bureau, Khost.
In the severely damaged Sperley district of Khost, a man stood on what was once a mud house. 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.
"The damage this disaster will do to the community ... is devastating, and the impact of the quake on the already expanding humanitarian response in Afghanistan is of great concern," said Vice President Adnan.・ Junaid states. For Asia for the International Rescue Commission. "The most affected areas are the poorest and most remote areas of Afghanistan, lacking the infrastructure to withstand such disasters."
