Afghan survivors struggle in the wake of deadly earthquake

In the mountains of southeast Afghanistan, full villages person been reduced to piles of chromatic and mud.

Nearly 1 week aft a devastating earthquake struck Kunar province, residents are mourning their families and figuring retired however they tin perchance survive, having mislaid everything.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3Aerial video shows earthquake harm successful Afghanistan’s Kunar province
• list 2 of 3After the quake, Afghanistan’s children look a situation wrong a crisis
• list 3 of 3Photos: Earthquake rescue teams battling to scope survivors successful Afghanistan

A magnitude 6.0 tremor struck the distant mountainous portion past weekend, killing much than 2,200 people.

“The victims look lone 2 choices, to leave, oregon die,” Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem reported from Kunar province, the epicentre of the quake.

Following the earthquake, beardown aftershocks were reported connected Friday, injuring astatine slightest 10, and raising fears of much decease and destruction.

Survivor Gul Rahim from Kunar state mislaid 63 members of his household successful the quake, including his five-year-old girl Fatima.

A antheral tries to wide rubble of a collapsed location successful Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Afghanistan [File: Hedayat Shah/AP Photo]

“We were dormant astatine location when, astatine midnight, the earthquake struck. All the houses collapsed and everyone was screaming,” helium told Al Jazeera, sitting connected the ruins of his home, with respective bags of immoderate belongings helium could recover.

“I managed to get out, but my youngest girl was trapped inside, crying, ‘Father, get maine retired of here!” By the clip we reached her, she had passed away,” helium said, his dependable trembling with grief.

“She was my youngest and astir beloved daughter.”

Rahim said different 100 oregon truthful of his neighbours were killed successful the quake.

“The dormant and injured were countless. The earthquake was terrifying, and leads radical to despair,” helium added.

The bulk of victims are from Kunar province, wherever astir radical unrecorded successful wood and mud-brick homes built on steep stream valleys surrounded by towering mountains.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said arsenic of September 3, astatine slightest 6,700 homes person been destroyed.

Rahim told Al Jazeera helium was present surviving successful a tent, and was disquieted astir wintertime approaching arsenic the country receives “heavy snowfall”.

“What we request astir are due homes to past the cold,” helium said. “I telephone connected the full world, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to assistance us. We person mislaid everything, adjacent our livestock and chickens. Nothing remains.”

Rescue efforts continue

Treacherous roads, relentless aftershocks and constricted assistance mean galore communities stay chopped off.

“Getting present was a harrowing experience,” recounted Al Jazeera’s Hashem. “We were driving for hours connected winding cliffside roads, with aftershocks shaking the crushed beneath america until we yet made it.

While rescue workers were “working astir the clock” successful hunt of survivors, anticipation was fading, Hashem said. “The authoritative decease toll isn’t final, with truthful galore inactive missing, the fig volition astir surely rise,” helium noted.

WHO has said landslides and blocked roads person obstructed alleviation work. The organisation has appealed for $4m successful funds to supply “life-saving wellness interventions” coupled with supporting “water, sanitation, and hygiene activities” for residents.

“They request nutrient assistance, safety, and medicine for the children,” unpaid Abdulrahman Sharafat told Al Jazeera.

Afghanistan is prone to almighty earthquakes due to the fact that it sits wherever the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. In October 2023, the occidental state of Herat experienced a magnitude 6.0 earthquake, resulting successful much than 2,000 deaths.

A twelvemonth earlier, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck the eastbound provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, and Nangarhar, sidesplitting astir 1,000 people.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies