The Afghan Taliban says rescue efforts are almost complete a day after 1,000 people were killed in the earthquake

JAYAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Aid began on Thursday in a remote part of Afghanistan where an earthquake killed 1,000 people and Taliban officials said the rescue operation was nearing completion.

The 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck early on Wednesday about 160 km southeast of Kabul in arid mountains dotted with small settlements near the border with Pakistan.

Poor communications and a lack of proper roads are hampering relief efforts in a country already grappling with a humanitarian crisis that has worsened since the Taliban seized power last August.

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“The rescue operation is over and no one is trapped under the rubble,” Mohammad Ismail Muawiya, a spokesman for the Taliban’s military commander in the worst-affected province of Paktika, told Reuters.

Muhammad Naseem Haqqani, a spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, told Reuters that rescue operations had ended in key areas, but were continuing in some isolated areas.

The United Nations said on Thursday that as of Wednesday, the Taliban’s Defense Ministry indicated that 90 percent of search and rescue operations had been completed.

Two retired Nepalese officers involved in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000 people expressed surprise that the rescue operation might be ending soon, but one noted that if most of the damaged homes were small, it was possible. Read more

Muawiyah said that the earthquake killed about 1,000 people and injured 1,500 others. More than 3,000 homes were destroyed.

According to US government data, the death toll makes it the deadliest earthquake in Afghanistan in two decades.

Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told Reuters about 1,000 people had been rescued by Thursday morning.

“Aid has reached the region and is continuing, but more is needed,” he said.

A Reuters team said the town of Gayan, close to the epicenter, was heavily damaged, with most of its mud-walled buildings damaged or completely collapsed.

The city, which has only the simplest of roads, was bustling with Taliban soldiers and ambulances when a helicopter carrying relief supplies landed nearby, creating huge swirls of dust. About 300 people sat on the ground waiting for supplies.

Paramedics and Afghan Red Crescent volunteers transport earthquake victims to hospitals in Sabra District, Khost Province, Afghanistan, June 22, 2022. Afghan Red Crescent Society / Posted via Reuters

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An unprecedented crisis

The rescue operation will be a major test for the hardline Islamist Taliban movement, which took over after the withdrawal of US-led international forces after two decades of war.

Aid officials say the humanitarian situation has alarmingly deteriorated since the Taliban seized power, with the country cut off from much international aid due to sanctions.

On Thursday, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi reiterated his calls for international aid.

“We call on natural disaster management agencies and the international community to provide immediate and comprehensive assistance to the Afghan people,” he said in a tweet.

In an appeal to donors in late March, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Afghanistan’s economy was on the verge of collapse.

Drought has undermined food production and 9 million Afghans face starvation. He said some families had to sell children and organs in order to survive.

The United Nations said the World Food Program was sending food and logistical equipment to the affected areas, with the aim of initially supporting 3,000 families.

“The Afghan people are already facing an unprecedented crisis following decades of conflict, severe drought and economic stagnation,” said Gordon Craig, WFP’s deputy director in Afghanistan.

“The earthquake will only add to the already enormous human needs they endure on a daily basis.”

On Thursday, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates said they were planning to send aid. Supplies from neighboring Pakistan have already crossed the border. Read more

Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because the tectonic plate known as the Indian plate pushes north into the Eurasian plate.

In 2015, an earthquake struck remote northeastern Afghanistan, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and neighboring northern Pakistan.

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Additional reporting by Syed Haseeb in Jayan and Muhammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva. Editing by Robert Percell and Nick McPhee

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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