At least 1,000 dead in Afghanistan earthquake

Kabul, Afghanistan (AFP) – A powerful earthquake struck a mountainous rural area in eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 others in one of the deadliest earthquakes in decades, the state news agency reported. Officials have warned that the already horrific death toll may continue to rise.

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Information remained scarce about the 6.1-magnitude earthquake near the Pakistani border, but earthquakes of this magnitude can cause extensive damage in an area where homes and other buildings are poorly constructed and landslides are common. Experts estimate the depth at only 10 kilometers – another factor that can lead to severe devastation.

The disaster posed a major test for the Taliban-led government, which seized power last year as the United States planned to withdraw from the country and end its longest war, two decades after the insurgents themselves ousted in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. .

Rescuers rushed to the area by helicopter on Wednesday, but the response is likely to be complicated as many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the Taliban took control. Rural access, even in the best of conditions, remains difficult in Afghanistan, a landlocked country slightly smaller than Texas with dilapidated mountain roads that may now have suffered significant damage.

In light of these difficulties, a Taliban official requested international assistance.

Sharaf al-Din Muslim said, “When such a big incident occurs in any country, help is needed from other countries.” “It’s very difficult for us to be able to respond to this huge incident.”

The neighboring Pakistan Meteorological Department said the quake’s epicenter was in the Afghan province of Paktika, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the city of Khost. Buildings were also damaged in Khost province, and tremors were felt 375 kilometers (230 miles) away in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Footage from Paktika showed men carrying people in blankets to waiting helicopters. Others were treated on the ground. One resident was seen receiving intravenous fluids while sitting on a plastic chair outside the ruins of his home, with more still on stretchers. Some photos showed residents picking mud bricks and other debris from destroyed stone houses, some of whose roofs or walls had collapsed.

The death toll announced by Bakhtar News Agency is equivalent to the 2002 earthquake in northern Afghanistan. It is the deadliest since 1998, when a 6.1-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tremors in remote northeastern Afghanistan killed at least 4,500 people.

In most places in the world, an earthquake of this size would not cause such mass destruction, said Robert Sanders, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey. But the death toll in an earthquake is often due to geography, building quality and population density.

“Because of the mountainous region, there are rockslides and landslides that we won’t know about until later. Old buildings are more likely to collapse and collapse,” he said. “Because of how dense the region is in this part of the world, we have seen in the past similar earthquakes causing significant damage.” .”

The Taliban are still trying to reshape government ministries abandoned by employees loyal to their previous Western-backed government, and it was not clear how officials arrived at the death toll reported by Bakhtar.

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In Kabul, Prime Minister Muhammad Hassan Akhund held an emergency meeting at the presidential palace to coordinate relief efforts, and Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, wrote on Twitter to urge aid agencies to send teams to the area.

“The response is on its way,” wrote the UN Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, on Twitter.

This may be difficult given the situation Afghanistan finds itself in today. After the Taliban overran the country in 2021, the US military and its allies returned to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and later withdrew completely. Many international humanitarian organizations have followed suit due to concerns about security and the Taliban’s poor human rights record.

In the time since then, the Taliban have worked with Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to restart airport operations in Kabul and across the country — but nearly all international carriers still shun the state, and aid organizations are reluctant to put any in place. Money in Taliban coffers may make it difficult to move supplies and equipment.

However, the Afghan Red Crescent Society has sent around 4,000 blankets, 800 tents and 800 kitchen sets to the affected area, according to Bakhtar’s general manager, Abdul Wahid Rayan.

The Italian Medical Aid Group, which is still operating in Afghanistan, said it had sent seven ambulances and two workers to the areas closest to the quake zone.

“The fear is that the casualties will increase more, because many more people may be trapped under the collapsed buildings,” said Stefano Souza, director of emergencies in Afghanistan. “This latest tragedy cannot but worsen the fragility and economic and social hardship that Afghanistan has experienced for months.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said his country would provide assistance. In the Vatican, Pope Francis offered prayers for all the dead, the wounded and “the suffering of the dear Afghan people.”

Timur Khan, a spokesperson for the district’s disaster management, said some remote areas in Pakistan have seen reports of damage to homes near the Afghan border, but it was not immediately clear if it was due to rain or earthquake.

The European seismological agency, EMSC, said 119 million people felt the quake tremor more than 500 km away in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

The mountains of Afghanistan and the greater region of South Asia along the Hindu Kush have always been prone to devastating earthquakes.

Associated Press writers Rahim Fayez and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, and John Gambrel and Isabel Debre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.

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