Days after quake, Afghan survivors still await aid

#Days #quake #Afghan #survivors #await #aid

Rescue teams are struggling to reach survivors after a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, as access to remote areas is hindering.

On Sunday, an earthquake of earthquake-6.0 earthquake in the mountainous region adjacent to Pakistan, when they slept, dropped mud brick houses on families.

Fearing the nearby aftershocks, people are struggling to find people trapped under the piles of flats or flattened buildings.

According to Taliban officials’ latest toll, the earthquake killed at least 1,469 people and injured more than 3,700, leaving it one of the deadly personality to target the poorest country for decades.

UN refugee chief Philippo Grandi said on the X that the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan “affected more than 500,000 people”.

The majority of the casualties were in Kanar Province, killing a dozen people and injuring hundreds in the nearest Nangarhar and Lagan provinces.

Access was difficult, as aftershocks caused a rockfall, accelerated access to the isolated villages already, and fell on them to keep their homes out of fear of the remnants of damaged homes.

‘Everyone is scared’

“Everyone is scared and many are aftershocks,” 35 -year -old Irving Zeb Noori told AFP from a village in Nangarhar province of Nangarhar province. “We spend all day and night in the field without shelter.”

The non -governmental group Saif the Children said a rescue team had “had to walk up to 20 km (12 miles) to reach the villages carrying medical supplies on their backs with the help of community members.”

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that it was promoting its emergency response to meet the “immense” needs and needed more resources to “prevent further losses”.

It has appealed Million 4 million to provide life -saving health intervention and increase mobile health services and supply distribution.

The emergency team leads in Afghanistan “every hour count”. “The hospital is struggling, the families are sad and the survivors have lost everything.”

Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Futher told AFP that the areas where it took to reach them was reached by the end.

“We cannot determine the date of operation in all areas as this area is very mountainous and it is very difficult to reach every area.”

Action Aid noted that women and girls were particularly weak in emergency because they face sanctions under Taliban authorities.

Residents of Jalalabad, the nearest city of the center, donated money and goods, including a blanket.

Resident Mohammad Rehman said, “I am a simple laborer and I came here to help the victims of the earthquake because I was very sad for them.”

The deepest crisis

According to the United Nations, about 85 85 % of the Afghan population is less than a dollar daily.

After decades of conflict, Afghanistan faces local poverty, severe drought and the arrival of millions of Afghans through neighboring countries in the years after the Taliban occupation.

The Norwegian Refugee Council warned that “forcing Afghans to return will only deepen the crisis”.

This is the third major earthquake since Taliban officials took power in 2021, but when President Donald Trump took office in January, the United States has less resources to react to the cash government after a reduction in support of the country.

Even before the earthquake, the United Nations had estimated that it had contributed less than a third of the funds needed for operations across the country.

In two days, the Taliban government’s Defense Ministry said it arranged 155 helicopter flights to move about 2,000 2,000 injured and their relatives to regional hospitals.

Federot said a camp was set up in Khus Kanar district to integrate emergency aid, while two other sites were opened near the center to “transfer the wounded, the burial of the dead, and the savings of the survivors”.

Afghanistan is often the cause of the earthquake, the country still recovers from the previous disasters.

The western Herat province was destroyed by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in October 2023, killing more than 1,500 people and damaging or destroying more than 63,000 homes.