Strongest earthquake in Afghanistan in two decades | news | DW

On Wednesday, a local official said that an earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed at least a thousand people.

“The number is increasing. People are digging graves after grave,” Muhammad Amin Hudhaifa, head of the Information and Culture Department in Paktika, said in a message to reporters.

Earlier, local official Bilal Karimi said on Twitter: “Unfortunately, a severe earthquake occurred last night in four districts of Paktika province, killing and wounding hundreds of our compatriots and destroying dozens of houses.”

What do we know about the earthquake?

The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck 44 km from the city of Khost, near the border with Pakistan.

Abdul Wahid Rayan, director general of the state-run Bakhtar News Agency, said on Twitter that 90 homes had been destroyed.

It is believed that dozens of people are still trapped under the rubble.

The quake was felt by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India over 500 kilometers (310 miles), according to the European Seismological Agency EMSC, which estimated a magnitude of 6.1.

Franz Marti, a freelance journalist based in Afghanistan, told DW that residents were “already burying the dead while the search for survivors was still underway.”

Marty said he spoke on the phone with local residents who said that rain had begun in Bartikka, hampering rescue efforts.

Kawthar, who lost his father in the earthquake, told DW that all the homes in his area had been destroyed. “Our food is buried under the rubble. We urgently need food and shelter… Mass graves are being dug and bodies buried in them.”

begging for help

A tribal elder from Jian District – one of the worst affected areas – told DW that local people were in dire need of urgent help.

Passing through, like most Afghans, local Sheikh Bakhtullah said, “Only in the Jian District, more than 190 people were killed and hundreds injured. First name.

“[The] Taliban helicopters transporting the wounded. The situation is devastating. Our people need help. We urgently need tents and food.”

Irfanullah Sharfazoi, head of public relations for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, told DW that the death toll was likely to rise. “The SARC has sent rescue and medical teams to four provinces. Aid is also on its way, which includes 1,500 tents and kitchen utensils. More aid is also being sent to the earthquake-affected areas.”

“Response is on the way,” Ramez Alakbarov, the UN Resident Coordinator, said on Twitter.

The disaster comes as Afghanistan grapples with a humanitarian and economic crisis that has worsened since the Taliban seized power last year.

Many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power and the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country.

Earthquake prone area

The mountainous northeast of Afghanistan lies in the area where the Indian tectonic plate collides with the Eurasian plates in the north, making the region vulnerable to devastating earthquakes.

In 2015, more than 200 people were killed in northeastern Afghanistan and neighboring northern Pakistan by a major earthquake that struck the region.

About 1,000 people were killed in a 6.1-magnitude earthquake in 2002, four years after another devastating 6.1-magnitude quake and subsequent tremors in Afghanistan’s remote northeast killed at least 4,500 people.

fb / kb (AFP, AP, dpa)

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