Rescuers race to find Afghan quake survivors as death toll rises

The United Nations has warned of an exponential emergence successful casualties from a almighty earthquake successful eastbound Afghanistan, arsenic the Taliban said the decease toll had surpassed 1,400 connected Tuesday, with much than 3,000 radical injured.

The figures provided by Taliban authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid were chiefly for the state of Kunar.

Sunday night’s magnitude 6 earthquake affected respective provinces, causing extended damage. It flattened villages and trapped radical nether the rubble of homes constructed chiefly of mud bricks and wood, which were incapable to withstand the shock.

Rough terrain is hampering rescue and alleviation efforts, forcing Taliban authorities to airdrop dozens of commandos to evacuate the injured from places wherever helicopters cannot land.

A magnitude 5.2 aftershock, adjacent to the epicentre of Sunday’s earthquake, rattled the country connected Tuesday, according to the United States Geological Survey. There were nary contiguous reports of damage.

Indrika Ratwatte, the United Nations nonmigratory coordinator for Afghanistan, said rescuers are scrambling successful a “race against time” to scope the mountainous and distant area. In a media briefing successful Geneva connected Tuesday, helium warned of a surge successful casualty numbers.

“We cannot spend to hide the radical of Afghanistan who are facing aggregate crises, aggregate shocks, and the resilience of the communities has been saturated,” Ratwatte said, urging the planetary assemblage to measurement forward.

“These are life-and-death decisions portion we contention against clip to scope people,” helium said.

It is the 3rd beardown earthquake since the Taliban seized powerfulness successful 2021, and the latest situation to beset Afghanistan, which is reeling from heavy cuts to assistance funding, a anemic economy, and millions of Afghans forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan.

The Taliban authorities has appealed for assistance from the planetary assemblage and the humanitarian sector. However, assistance for the state is successful abbreviated proviso owed to competing planetary crises and reduced assistance budgets successful donor countries.