Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers plead for help after the country’s deadliest earthquake in two decades

Aid agencies rushed aid to the eastern regions of Afghanistan after a powerful 6.1-magnitude earthquake rocked the country early Wednesday morning, killing more than a thousand people.

KEY POINTS: The Taliban’s supreme leader appealed to the international community to “spare no effort” in what was the worst earthquake in Afghanistan in two decades, with fears the death toll could rise. Hit 2:24 am local time

The disaster posed a new test for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and aid agencies already reeling from the country’s multiple humanitarian crises.

Officials said the earthquake was the deadliest in Afghanistan in two decades and the death toll could rise.

The state news agency said an estimated 1,500 people were injured.

The disaster is causing more misery in a country where millions have faced starvation, increasing poverty and a collapsing health system since the Taliban regained power nearly 10 months ago.

This acquisition cut vital international funding, and most of the world has since shunned the Taliban government.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzadeh – who has almost never appeared in public – has appealed to the international community and humanitarian organizations “to help the Afghan people affected by this great tragedy and to spare no effort”.

Haibatullah Akhundzadeh appealed to the international community for assistance (AP)

Residents of a remote region near the Pakistani border searched for victims, alive or dead, by digging with their bare hands among the rubble, Bakhtar news agency showed.

Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations in Afghanistan, Ramez Alakbarov, said at least 2,000 homes were destroyed in the area with an average of seven or eight people living in each family.

Helicopters were sent to evacuate the wounded

The full extent of the destruction among the villages tucked into the mountains was slow to emerge.

Its roads – rickety and difficult to walk in the best of conditions – may have taken more damage, and landslides from recent rains have made them more inaccessible.

Rescuers rushed by helicopter, but relief efforts have been hampered by the mass exodus of many international aid agencies from Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power last August.

Helicopters helped evacuate the wounded because the roads were badly damaged (Reuters: Bakhtar News Agency)

Moreover, most governments are wary of dealing directly with the Taliban.

Alakbarov said the Taliban did not formally ask the United Nations to mobilize international search and rescue teams, nor did it ask for equipment from neighboring countries.

However, officials from several UN agencies said the Taliban are giving them full access to the area.

The neighboring Pakistan Meteorological Department said the quake’s epicenter was in Paktika province, about 50 km southwest of the city of Khost.

Experts put its depth at only 10 kilometers. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

Most of the confirmed deaths occurred in Paktika state, and deaths were reported in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Khost.

The European Seismological Agency said 119 million people felt the quake more than 500 km away in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

The Bakhtar news agency reported that the death toll so far equals the death toll from the 2002 earthquake in northern Afghanistan.

Those were the deadliest since 1998, when a 6.1-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tremors in the remote northeastern region killed at least 4,500 people.

Wednesday’s earthquake occurred in an area prone to landslides with many old and weaker buildings.

“The fear is that the casualties will increase more, because a lot of people may be trapped under collapsed buildings,” said Stefano Souza, the Afghan country director of the Italian emergency group for medical aid.

That humanitarian group sent seven ambulances and staff to areas close to the quake zone.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, Right and left arrows to search, Up and down arrows for volume. Hundreds dead in Afghanistan after earthquake, aid agencies send aid to quake-hit areas

More than 60 percent of Afghanistan’s 38 million people already depend on international aid to survive.

Humanitarian agencies still operating in the country, including UNICEF, rushed supplies to the earthquake-stricken areas. Pakistan said it would send food, tents, blankets and other necessities.

Relief agencies rushed supplies to quake-affected areas (Reuters: Parvez)

Getting more direct international assistance may be more difficult because many countries, including the United States, move humanitarian aid into Afghanistan through the United Nations and other similar organizations to avoid putting money in the hands of the Taliban.

The federal government has indicated that it is considering what assistance it can provide to Afghanistan.

“[Foreign Affairs] Minister [Penny] “Wong will look very carefully at our response, obviously will provide any assistance possible, and ensure that it reaches those in need,” Energy Secretary Chris Bowen said.

US President Joe Biden has directed the US Agency for International Development and other federal government entities to assess how to respond to help those most affected.

UN spokeswoman for the World Food Program in Kabul Shelly Thakral said the earthquake “will only add to the massive humanitarian needs in Afghanistan, and it should be ‘all hands on the surface’ to make sure we truly reduce the suffering of families, which the women and children are already going through.”

Afghan Prime Minister, Muhammad Hassan Akhund, held an emergency meeting at the Presidential Palace.

“When such a major accident occurs in any country, assistance from other countries is needed,” said Sharafuddin Muslim, Deputy Minister of State for Disaster Management.

It is very difficult for us to be able to respond to this huge incident.”

Receiving international assistance can be difficult, given the international isolation of Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, which the United States initially ousted from power after the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, the abrupt withdrawal of US forces and other countries last year left it. The void that the Taliban quickly filled.

The newly restored government issued a series of decrees restricting the rights of women, girls, and the media in a return to harsh Taliban rule in the late 1990s.

“This adds a lot to the daily burden of surviving,” Mr. Alakbarov of the United Nations said of the earthquake. “We are not optimistic today.”

Space to play or pause M to mute Right and left arrows to search Up and down arrows for volume Duration: 5 min 21 sec 5m Taliban appeal for international support after a devastating earthquake.

AP

Posted 9 hours ago9 hours agoWednesday Jun 22 2022 at 9:27pm Updated 6 hours ago6 hours agoThursday Jun 23 2022 at 12:52am

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