Balita.org: Your Premier Source for Comprehensive Philippines News and Insights! We bring you the latest news, stories, and updates on a wide range of topics, including politics, culture, economy, and more. Stay tuned to know everything you wish about your favorite stars 24/7.

Contacts

  • Owner: SNOWLAND s.r.o.
  • Registration certificate 06691200
  • 16200, Na okraji 381/41, Veleslavín, 162 00 Praha 6
  • Czech Republic

Volunteers dig for Afghan quake survivors as aid trickles in

KASHKAK, Afghanistan — Afghan villagers and volunteers on Monday helped dig for survivors of a series of earthquakes that killed more than 2,000 people, as aid began trickling into the devastated region.

Volunteers in trucks packed with food, tents and blankets flocked to hard-to-reach areas 30 kilometres (19 miles) northwest of Herat city, capital of the same-named province, hit by a magnitude 6.3 quake Saturday and eight powerful aftershocks.

They also brought shovels to help dig through the rubble of flattened villages as hope dwindled that anyone may still be buried alive.

"Many people have come from far-flung districts to get people out from the rubble," said Khalid, 32, at Kashkak in Zenda Jan district.

"Everyone is busy searching for bodies everywhere, we don't know if there are others as well under the debris." 

Local and national officials gave conflicting counts of the number of dead and injured, but the country's disaster agency said Sunday that 2,053 people had died.

The World Health Organisation said more than 11,000 people had been affected from 1,655 families.

As winter draws in, providing shelter for them will be a major challenge for Afghanistan's Taliban government, which seized power in August 2021 and has fractious relations with international aid organisations.

Taliban authorities have banned women from working for UN and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country, making assessments of family needs in deeply conservative parts of the country difficult.

Save the Children called the quake "a crisis on top of a crisis".

"The scale of the damage is horrific. The numbers affected by this tragedy are truly disturbing," said the group's country director Arshad Malik.

In Sarboland village, an AFP reporter saw gutted homes, with personal belongings flapping in the wind as women and children camped out in the open.

Most rural homes in Afghanistan are made of mud built around wooden support poles, with little in the way of modern steel reinforcement.

Multi-generational extended families generally live under the same roof, meaning disasters such as Saturday's quake can devastate local communities.

Afghanistan is already suffering a dire

Read more on philstar.com
DMCA