JALALABAD: Hope is fading for finding survivors beneath the rubble of homes devastated by the weekend’s powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.
Emergency services continue to struggle with reaching remote villages days after the disaster struck the mountainous region bordering Pakistan.
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit the area on Sunday, leaving residents huddled in open air due to fear of powerful aftershocks.
Desperate rescue efforts continue as people try to pull victims from under flattened buildings.
Taliban authorities confirmed the earthquake killed more than 1,400 people and injured over 3,300 individuals.
This makes the disaster one of the deadliest earthquakes to hit the impoverished country in decades.
The vast majority of casualties occurred in Kunar province, with a dozen dead and hundreds injured in nearby Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.
Victims remain trapped under rubble in Kunar’s Nurgal district, according to local official Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad.
“There are some villages which have still not received aid,“ he told reporters on Wednesday.
Landslides caused by the earthquake have further stymied access to already isolated villages.
Save the Children reported that one aid team had to walk 20 kilometres to reach villages cut off by rock falls.
The team carried medical equipment on their backs with help from community members.
The World Health Organization warned that the number of casualties is expected to rise as many remain trapped in destroyed buildings.
The Taliban government’s defence ministry organised 155 helicopter flights over two days to evacuate approximately 2,000 injured people and their relatives.
A small mobile clinic deployed in Mazar Dara village provides emergency care but no tents shelter survivors.
A defence ministry commission instructed relevant institutions to take measures to normalise earthquake victims’ lives.
Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat confirmed a coordination camp was set up in Khas Kunar district.
Two other centres opened near the epicentre to oversee injured transfers, burials, and survivor rescues.
The United Nations estimates hundreds of thousands of people could be affected by the disaster.
Multiple countries have pledged assistance despite funding shortfalls after massive aid cuts.
Non-governmental organisations and the UN voice alarm about the threatened response in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Afghanistan faces endemic poverty and severe drought after decades of conflict.
Millions of Afghans have been forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran since the 2021 Taliban takeover.
“This earthquake could not have come at a worse time,“ said IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain.
“The disaster not only brings immediate suffering but also deepens Afghanistan’s already fragile humanitarian crisis.” – AFP