Afghanistan Quake Kills 1,000, “Digging Grave After Grave”, Says Official
Afghanistan Quake
Kabul: A strong earthquake hit the remote border area of Afghanistan last night killed at least 1,000 people and injured hundreds of others, officials said on Wednesday, with the calculation expected to increase when the rescue that was desperate to dig through a collapsed residence.
An earthquake measuring 5.9 struck the harsh east, where people had lived a hard life in a country under the humanitarian disaster which was exacerbated by the Taliban takeover in August.
“People dug up the grave after grave,” said Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, Head of the Disasured Department of Information and Culture in Paktika, added that at least 1,000 people had died in the province.
“It rained too, and all the houses were destroyed. People are still trapped under the debris,” he told reporters.
The prince of death increased steadily throughout the day when the news about victims was filtered from areas that were difficult to reach in the mountains, and the country’s highest leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, warned the possibility of increasing further.
Previously, a tribal leader from Paktika said the survivors and savior struggled to help those affected.
“The local market is closed and everyone rushes to the affected area,” Yaqub Manzor told AFP by telephone.
Photos and video clips posted on social media showed a number of badly damaged mud houses in remote rural areas.
Some recordings show local residents contain victims to a military helicopter.
Assistance offer
Even before the takeover of the Taliban, the Afghan emergency response team was stretched to deal with natural disasters that often hit the country.
But with only a handful of aircraft that are air -worthy and helicopters abandoned because the Muslims of hardlines returned to power, every direct response to the latest disasters is more limited.
“The government works in its ability,” Tweeted Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official.
“We hope that the International Community & Assistance Institution will also help our people in this terrible situation.”
The United Nations -nation and the European Union quickly offer assistance.
“The inter-institutional assessment team has been deployed to a number of affected areas,” the UN office for coordinating humanitarian affairs (Unocha) in Afghanistan Tweeted.
Tomas Niklasson, a special EU delegation for Afghanistan, tweeted: “EU is monitoring the situation and is ready to coordinate and provide EU emergency assistance to people and affected communities.”
Afghanistan is often hit by earthquakes – especially in the Hindu Kush mountains, which are located near the intersection of Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
A number of people were killed and injured in January when two earthquakes hit rural areas in West Badghis Province, damaged hundreds of buildings.
In 2015, more than 380 people were killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan when an earthquake measuring 7.5 tore up the two countries, with most deaths in Pakistan.
From the Vatican city, Pope Francis said a prayer for the latest earthquake victims.
“I express my closeness to the injured and those who are affected,” said the 85 -year -old Pope at the end of his weekly audience.
Agency -Assistance and the United Nations said Afghanistan needed billions of dollars this year to overcome the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Assistances specifically emphasize the need for larger disaster preparedness in Afghanistan, which remains very vulnerable to earthquakes, floods and repetitive landslides.
