Earthquake kills thousands in Afghanistan

Afghans were already suffering from hunger, poverty and the consequences of war when disaster struck again in the early hours of 22 June. A 5.9-magnitude earthquake centered on the southeastern province of Khost, on the border with Pakistan, destroyed homes and caused landslides in Khost and neighboring Paktika while people were sleeping. By dawn, photographs showed villages reduced to rubble or razed to the ground by torrential torrents of shifting dirt. Residents searched the dilapidated building piles and began digging graves.

The speed with which the reported death toll rose, even in an area with few communication links, is a sign of how severe the tremor could be. Within hours, the state news agency put the number of casualties at more than 1,000, in addition to 1,500 wounded. Those numbers are expected to rise further, making the country’s deadliest earthquake in recent decades. “People are digging graves after graves,” said Muhammad Amin Hudhaifa, head of media and culture department in Paktika. “It is also raining, and all the houses are destroyed. People are still trapped under the rubble,” he added.

The earthquake hit a country in crisis. Drought, war and covid-19 have left most Afghans already destitute. When the Taliban took power last summer, foreign aid stopped overnight. Sanctions for her leadership halted bank transfers and paralyzed commerce. Aid agencies have spent the past six months trying to save millions of people from starvation while ensuring that their money does not flow into Taliban coffers.

The earthquake-stricken hinterland, which includes poor settlements on steep slopes prone to landslides, is not particularly equipped to cope with this earthquake. Even before the Taliban returned to power, foreign aid often failed to reach places as far away as Khost and Paktika. The southeast’s role as a stronghold for the feared Taliban Haqqani faction meant that for years it was a site of fighting rather than economic development. Lack of funds and materials has resulted in the poor construction of many homes in the area. And although the fighting stopped once the Taliban took over, poverty increased.

The disaster will test the Taliban’s ability to rule. Former rebels have taken over a country. But foreign officials in Kabul they have met say they are struggling to manage it. Taliban officials have expressed shock at the scale of the governing body they have assumed. Many seem to feel their way around it, without much sense of what to do. “We don’t have anything like governance here; we have a few ministries that do their own things,” says a foreign official. Big jobs are allocated by loyalty and seniority rather than competence. Technocrats have been replaced by fighters and clerics.

The Taliban has published a budget, and has claimed that Afghanistan is economically self-sufficient. But the earthquake victims have not received much help yet. Emergency and disaster management teams are hampered by a shortage of airworthy aircraft and helicopters. Realizing its own limitations, the Taliban demanded foreign aid. The charities and UN agencies that used to feed Afghans and run hospitals are now operational. But for many of those whose homes have been destroyed, help will come too late. ■

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