The 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck overnight in Paktika and Khost provinces on the border with Pakistan in southeastern Afghanistan. More than a thousand people were killed and 1500 others injured.
The earthquake was felt in several provinces in the region, and also in the Afghan capital, Kabul, located about 200 km north of the epicenter of the earthquake. It was also felt in neighboring Pakistan, but no damage or casualties have been reported yet.
The quake is arrived at night when many people were asleep. Families could be still believed to be trapped under the rubble. we can fear that the toll could rise further.
“People are digging grave after grave,” said the head of the Information and Culture Department of Paktika province, Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, in a message to the press. “It is also raining and all the houses are destroyed. There are no tents or food. People are still trapped under the rubble (…) We need immediate help,” he added.
More than 2,000 houses were reportedly destroyed.
In the villages, unfortunately, people don’t always have the income, the ressources and the ability to build proper housing that’s why as many houses were destroyed, if no more have already been destroyed.
This is the first natural disaster since the Taliban takeover. The government is trying to send helicopters to aid people but the issue is that the aid economic here has been devastated. They are trying to rely as much on local aid agencies, but those are the ones that have felt the greatest impact from the sanctions, from the cutback.
In this poor and difficult to access rural areaGetting aid to people in need has always been extremely difficult and they will very struggle to deal with this issue until international aid agencies cans pump money in more support because at the moment they’re really under resources and founded.
Afghanistan is plunged into a serious financial and humanitarian crisis caused by the freezing of billions of assets held abroad and the sudden halt of international aid which had been carrying the country at arm’s length for 20 years and which is now returning in dribs and drabs.
Frequent earthquakes
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies at the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. These disasters can be particularly destructive because of the low resistance of rural Afghan houses.
The deadliest earthquake in Afghanistan’s recent history (5,000 deaths) occurred in May 1998 in the northeastern provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan.
