(CNN)To reach the victims of the powerfulearthquake that shook eastern Afghanistan, Aid group scrambled on Thursday. As the country faces a dire economy and a crisis of hunger, it has killed more than 1,000 people in areas devastated by poor infrastructure.
The slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, is humane like Obaidullah Baheer, a transitional justice instructor at an American university in Afghanistan. It is related to the people who work in the space. "This is a very patchwork band-aid solution for problems that need to start thinking (about) in the medium to long term. What would we do if (another disaster) occurs?" He said. I talked to CNN on the phone.
Early Wednesday, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck near the city of Khost near the Pakistani border, and many homes in the area were thinly made of wood and mud, resulting in deaths. Expected to increase. And other vulnerable materials.
Humanitarian agencies are concentrated in this area, but it can take several days for aid to reach the most remote and affected areas of the country.
UNICEF Afghanistan's chief of communications, Sammoat, told CNN that important aid dispatched to help affected families is expected to reach the village by Saturday. According to Anita Dullard, a spokesman for the Asia-Pacific region of the ICRC, the team deployed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has not yet arrived. The
quake coincided with the heavy rain and wind of the monsoon between June 20 and 22, hindering search activities and helicopter movement.
When the Taliban came to power last August, support was limited as many organizations withdrew from aid-dependent countries and healthcare workers and rescuers across the country were trying to access the site. It is expected to be.
The rest is thinly stretched. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized "all resources" from across the country and teams in the field provided medical care and emergency assistance. However, as one WHO official said, "resources are overused here, not just in this area."
The international community's hesitation in dealing with Tullivan and the group's "very troublesome bureaucracy that makes it difficult to get information from one source" opens up communication gaps in rescue operations. Brought. Save Afghans from Hunger-, the founder of the aid group, said.
"The heart of everything is how politics has been transformed into this communication gap, not only between the country and the Taliban, but also between international aid organizations and the Taliban," he added. rice field.
Baheer shows how he has acted as a conduit for information to the World Food Program and other aid organizations, to areas where the Afghan Department of Defense has been severely damaged by humanitarian organizations. I am telling you that I am providing air transportation assistance. ..
Meanwhile, some people spent the night sleeping in a makeshift outdoor shelter while rescue teams were looking for survivors with flashlights. According to the United Nations, 2,000 homes are believed to have been destroyed. A severely hit photo of Paktika, where most of the deaths have been reported, shows that the house is dusty and debris.
'Carpet sanctioning the whole country and the whole nation'
The economic crisis in Afghanistan has been imminent for years as a result of conflict and drought. However, a new depth after the acquisition of the Taliban. This has caused the United States and its allies to freeze the country's approximately $ 7 billion in foreign reserves and block international funding.
The United States no longer exists in Afghanistan, following the rapid withdrawal of troops and the collapse of the former US-backed Afghan government. Like almost every other country, it has no official relationship with the Taliban government.
This move has crippled the Afghan economy and put many of its 20 million people in a serious hunger crisis. Millions of Afghans are absent from work, civil servants are unpaid, and food prices are skyrocketing.
Baheer states that sanctions "are very damaging to us," so Afghans are having a hard time sending money to families affected by the earthquake.
"The fact that there is almost no banking system, the fact that new currencies have not been printed or brought into the country in the last 9-10 months, our assets have been frozen. There are no sanctions. "It works."
He added: "The morally meaningful sanctions are not the carpet that sanctions the whole country and the whole nation, but the sanctions that target specific individuals."
Experts and officials say the most imminent imminent. Needs include medical care and transportation for the injured, shelter and supplies for displaced people, food and water, and clothing.
The United Nations has distributed and dispatched medical care to Afghanistan, but warned that it lacked search and rescue capabilities and had little ability for local neighbors to intervene.
Pakistan offered support and opened. According to local government spokesperson Mohammad Ali Saif, injured Afghans can enter the country without a visa across the border in the northern province of Kyber Paktunkhwa. The flow of ng and people for treatment continues, these numbers are expected to increase by the end of the day, Saif told CNN.
Pakistan has severely restricted Afghanistan to enter via border crossings since the Taliban came to power.
