Aftershocks hit Afghanistan, increasing the death toll from the earthquake

State media reported that a hard-hit region of eastern Afghanistan continued to shake on Friday, two days after the earthquake that shook the region, destroying hundreds of mud houses and killing 1,150 people.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department reported a 4.2-magnitude earthquake in southeastern Afghanistan, which the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported, killing five more people in the hard-hit Jayan district and injuring 11.

The country of 38 million people was in the midst of a escalating economic crisis that had plunged millions into poverty with more than a million children at risk of severe acute malnutrition.

The 6.0-magnitude earthquake on Wednesday, which struck at night while people were sleeping, left thousands without shelter and highlighted the country’s growing needs. Afghanistan remains cut off from the international monetary system, and aid groups lament having to pay local staff with hand-delivered sacks of cash as countries refuse to deal directly with the Taliban.

Relief organizations such as the local Red Crescent and the World Food Program stepped in to help the most vulnerable families with food and other emergency needs such as tents and sleeping mats in Paktika province, the epicenter, and neighboring Khost province.

However, residents appeared largely on their own to deal with the fallout, as their new Taliban-led government and the international aid community struggle to provide assistance. The poor mountain roads leading to the affected areas were exacerbated by the damage and rain. Villagers would bury their dead and dig among the rubble by hand, looking for survivors.

The death toll varies

The director of the Taliban’s Bakhtiar Agency said on Friday that the death toll had risen to 1,150 compared to previous reports of 1,000. Abdul Wahed Rayan said at least 1,600 people were injured.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated the death toll at 770.

WFP trucks loaded with aid are getting ready Friday to travel to the affected villages after the earthquake in Jayan district of Paktika province. (Ahmed Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images)

It is not clear how the death toll is arrived at, given the difficulties in reaching and communicating with the affected villages. Any of the horrific losses would make Afghanistan’s deadliest earthquake in two decades.

State media reported that nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged. In the Jayan region, the earthquake destroyed at least 1,000 homes. Another 800 homes were damaged in Spira district, Khost province.

While modern buildings withstand earthquakes of magnitude 6 elsewhere, adobe homes and mountains prone to landslides make such earthquakes much more dangerous.

The site of the original earthquake earlier this week:

The roads in the region are so poorly paved and difficult to navigate that some villages in the Jayan region take an entire day to reach from Kabul, although they are no more than 175 kilometres.

In villages across the region, where Associated Press reporters roamed for hours Thursday, families who had spent the previous rainy night out in the open lifted logs from collapsed roofs and manually pulled stones in search of their missing loved ones. Taliban fighters were deployed in vehicles in the area, but a few of them were seen helping excavate the rubble.

Countries want to channel aid through the UN, not through the Taliban

Many international aid agencies withdrew from Afghanistan when the Taliban seized power last August. The rest are scrambling for medical supplies, food and tents to the remote quake-hit area. UN agencies are also facing a $3 billion US funding shortfall for Afghanistan this year.

Germany, Norway and several other countries announced that they would send aid to the earthquake, but they confirmed that they would only work through United Nations agencies, and not with the Taliban, which no government has officially recognized so far. The United Nations called on the Taliban to address human rights concerns first, primarily the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls.

The International Rescue Committee has emergency health teams in the two counties to provide basic first aid and said it is providing cash support to families who lost their homes and livelihoods in the earthquake. The organization, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 1988, is calling for an international roadmap for the eventual release of Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves.

WATCH l Progress on Slow Process to Get Military Interpreters to Canada: Pakistan Gives Safe Passage to Afghans Fleeing Taliban The Pakistani government has given safe passage to Afghans fleeing the Taliban to a third country, including two Canadian translators stuck in Islamabad who were in hiding. for nearly a year. The move could hasten Ottawa’s promise to bring 40,000 Afghans to Canada.

The Taliban’s takeover of the country last year while the United States was preparing to withdraw its forces prompted the Biden administration to freeze about $9.5 billion with the Central Bank of Afghanistan in American banks, hampering efforts by the new rulers to pay civil servants and import goods.

Trucks of food and other supplies arrived from Pakistan, and planes full of humanitarian aid landed from Iran and Qatar.

India has sent a technical team to the capital, Kabul, to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid. India says its aid will be delivered to a UN agency on the ground and to the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

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