Taliban authorities report the death toll has climbed as rescue teams struggle to reach isolated areas after an earthquake struck Afghanistan’s mountainous eastern region. Another tremor hit the area late on Thursday.
Rescuers are battling to reach survivors after an earthquake in Afghanistan left over 2,200 dead.
The vast majority of the dead and nearly 4,000 injured were in mountainous Kunar province near the border with Pakistan, Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said Thursday.
“Tents have been set up for people, and the delivery of first aid and emergency supplies is ongoing,” he added.
Sunday’s magnitude-6.0 earthquake, one of the deadliest in Afghanistan in decades, was followed by a magnitude-5.2 tremor Tuesday, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Late on Thursday, another fairly large quake hit the same isolated region near the border to Pakistan and the eastern city of Jalalabad, with the USGS putting it at magnitude 5.6 intially.
Aid agencies urging more support
Rescue operations have been complicated by rockfalls and landslides triggered by repeated aftershocks, which have blocked roads and made land travel difficult.
“Many survivors are still believed to be trapped beneath collapsed homes in remote villages, and the window for finding them alive is rapidly closing,” the World Health Organization said in a statement late Wednesday.
Humanitarian needs are “vast and growing rapidly,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The quake affected, “more than more than 1.3 million people and [left] hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged.”
Rescue efforts further complicated by humanitarian crisis
Afghanistan remains in the grip of a prolonged humanitarian crisis after decades of conflict. It is also dealing with an influx of millions of Afghans forced to return by neighboring Pakistan and Iran in recent years.
“The earthquake is not a stand-alone disaster,” said Jacopo Caridi, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council. “It hit communities that were already struggling with displacement, food insecurity, drought, and the return of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees from neighboring countries.”
Source : https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-earthquake-death-toll-tops-2200/a-73880933
