Afghanistan earthquake: Afghans suffer from multiple disasters

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The earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan late Wednesday was on its terms a terrible disaster. At least 1,000 people were killed, including many children, and more than 1,600 were injured in a remote and rugged part of the country – making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in recent decades. The earthquakes destroyed entire villages and dismantled the mud houses scattered all over the area. Heavy rains and mudslides complicated rescue operations, wiping out survivors trapped under the rubble.

But the tragedy has been compounded by Afghanistan’s political isolation and economic collapse. The country has been under severe sanctions since the fundamentalist Taliban movement seized power last year. The fire hose of foreign exchange and international aid that had propped up US-backed governments in Kabul for two decades was shut down overnight. The US Treasury has frozen billions of dollars in Afghan foreign reserves.

The Taliban bucked previous assertions about their rule and severely restricted women’s rights, prevented school girls after sixth grade from accessing education and imposed other strict Islamic controls. The international community treats the militia leadership as the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, but official recognition by foreign governments is not likely as long as the Taliban pursues this hard-line agenda.

As a result, Afghanistan is in the grip of a dizzying series of social and economic crises: according to the United Nations, 15 years of economic growth has been curtailed within 10 months, with the country’s economy shrinking by about 30-40 percent. The banking system has effectively collapsed, vital remittances from Afghans living abroad have dried up by half, many businesses have closed, and commodity prices have soared. Unemployment could reach 40 percent this year. Nearly half of the country’s population is facing acute hunger, while nearly 6 in 10 Afghans need humanitarian assistance.

The West has a hand in the bleak country of Afghanistan

?️SHAKE MAP: Seismic intensity scale (Mercalli) of 5.9 degrees today #earthquake.

At a depth of only 10 km, it is strongly felt in the red areas below, where injuries and damage are most likely concentrated.

Life-saving search and rescue efforts are underway. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/5UGv6st2TW

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Afghanistan) (OCHAAfg) June 22, 2022

Then the earthquake came. In addition to the horrific death toll, countless residents in this impoverished part of the country are now homeless and left exposed to the elements, including the recent torrential rains. There are countless harrowing accounts of survivors digging with their own hands through the rubble in search of their loved ones.

Senior Taliban officials rushed to the affected areas to show sympathy but called for outside help. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhonzadeh, called on “the international community and social and humanitarian welfare organizations to come forward and provide assistance to those affected by the earthquake in Afghanistan.”

A host of international aid organizations rushed to help, but the prevailing sanctions have complicated how cash flows enter the country and how quickly outside actors can influence matters on the ground. “The government is unfortunately under sanctions, so it is financially unable to help people to the extent required,” Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a senior Taliban official, told the Guardian. “Aid needs to be increased very substantially because this is a devastating earthquake that hasn’t happened in decades.”

“The Afghan people are already facing an unprecedented crisis after decades of conflict, severe drought and economic stagnation,” said Gordon Craig, the UN World Food Program’s deputy regional director for Afghanistan. “The earthquake will only add to the already massive humanitarian needs they endure on a daily basis, including the nearly 19 million people across the country facing acute hunger and in need of assistance.”

Afghans mourn the dead and seek shelter after the devastating earthquake

After it froze Afghan reserves and imposed sanctions amid the Taliban’s seizure of power, the Biden administration has been criticized for effectively pushing the Afghan economy off a cliff. Diplomats from neighboring countries, Afghans abroad and United Nations officials have called on the United States to soften its approach. That doesn’t seem imminent, though White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement this week that the United States has been “the single largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, and our humanitarian partners already provide medical care and shelter supplies on the ground.”

At a UN Security Council session on Afghanistan on Thursday, Ramez Alakbarov, the acting head of the UN mission in the country, warned of the bleak big picture. “If the economy is not able to recover and grow purposefully and sustainably, the Afghan people will face recurring humanitarian crises, which could spur mass migration and create conditions for extremism and renewed armed conflict,” he said.

Alakbarov added: “We continue to firmly believe that the strategy of continued engagement and dialogue remains the only way forward for the sake of the Afghan people, as well as for regional and international security.”

But there is no useful path for dialogue and negotiations with the Taliban at the moment.

My heart speaks to the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that killed hundreds.

UN is fully mobilized and our teams are on the ground to assess needs and provide initial support. pic.twitter.com/LFrNKVxPpS

– Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 22, 2022

And all the time, ordinary Afghans face complex misfortunes. In eastern Paktika state, where the earthquake struck, my colleagues report on the meager relief operations underway. Taliban authorities were distributing food rations to a crowd of men and boys from a village where dozens were killed.

“One piece of bread only for a day, so what do we do with it?” A local elder said. “We need tents and money to rebuild,” my colleagues said – echoing villagers’ fears that their earthquake-ravaged homes could collapse completely.

Similar concerns surfaced in 1998, when two earthquakes struck the country within a few months, killing thousands. Then, too, the country’s tormenting political and security stalemate hampered relief efforts. The stricken areas were controlled by a coalition of anti-Taliban factions, who controlled the greater part of the country.

The Washington Post reported in February 1998 that “a natural disaster could test the ability of the warring factions in Afghanistan to suspend hostilities long enough for aid to reach the victims.”

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