Afghan earthquake death toll passes 1400, Taliban says, as rescuers search for survivors

Kabul: The death toll from a strong earthquake in Afghanistan’s east has passed 1400, according to the Taliban government, with more than 3000 people injured as rescue teams scoured the area for survivors.

The 6.0 magnitude quake struck on Monday AEST in a mountainous region, flattening villages and leaving people trapped under rubble for hours.

“The earthquake caused landslides in some areas, blocking roads, but they have been reopened, and the remaining roads will be reopened to allow access to areas that were difficult to reach,” Yousaf Hammad, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, told the Associated Press.

Indrika Ratwatte, the UN’s resident coordinator for Afghanistan, said rescuers were scrambling in a “race against time” to reach the mountainous and remote area hit by the disaster. In a media briefing in Geneva Tuesday, he warned of a surge in casualty numbers.

“We cannot afford to forget the people of Afghanistan who are facing multiple crises, multiple shocks, and the resilience of the communities has been saturated,” Ratwatte said, while urging the international community to step forward.

The quake was the third strong earthquake since the Taliban seized power in 2021, and the latest crisis to beset Afghanistan, which is reeling from deep cuts to aid funding, a weak economy and millions of people forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan.

The Taliban government has appealed for international assistance. The United Nations and several Western governments, including the UK and the European Union, have pledged emergency funds.

Rescue operations were under way in four villages in Kunar Province, and efforts would focus on reaching more remote mountain areas, said Ehsanullah Ehsan, provincial head of disaster management.

“We cannot accurately predict how many bodies might still be trapped under the rubble,” he said, adding that rescuers were hoping to complete their operations as soon as possible and start distributing aid to affected families.

The quake struck about midnight on Monday, Afghan time, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, about 27 kilometres east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad. The eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar have been hit hardest, with 812 people killed.

“Dozens of villages in Kunar are completely gone,” Janan Saiq, a spokesperson for the province’s Disaster Management Authority, told the London Telegraph, which described hospitals in Kunar as overwhelmed, with patients being treated in corridors and courtyards.

“Vans filled with bodies are arriving by the minute,” Dr Shahidullah Aziz told the paper. “The morgue is already full.”

One survivor described seeing homes collapse before his eyes and people screaming for help as the quake struck.

Sadiqullah, who lives in the Maza Dara area of Nurgal, said he was woken by a deep boom that sounded like a storm approaching. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.

He ran to where his children were sleeping and rescued three of them. He was about to return to grab the rest of his family when the room fell on top of him.

“I was half-buried and unable to get out,” he told the Associated Press by phone from Nangarhar Hospital. “My wife and two sons are dead, and my father is injured and in hospital with me. We were trapped for three to four hours until people from other areas arrived and pulled me out.”

It felt like the whole mountain was shaking, he said.

Mountainous terrain and bad weather have hindered rescuers from reaching remote areas along the Pakistani border where the quake flattened mud brick homes.

Machinery has been brought in to clear roads of debris, and on Tuesday, a line of ambulances was on the damaged mountain road trying to reach a village in Kunar as helicopters flew in supplies and took the injured to hospitals, according to a Reuters witness.

Taliban soldiers were deployed in the area, providing help and security.

‘System overwhelmed’

The World Health Organisation said more than 12,000 people had been affected and, in a situation update, warned that the pre-existing fragility of Afghanistan’s health system meant capacity was “overwhelmed”.

Thousands of children are particularly at risk, the United Nations Children’s Fund warned on Tuesday. UNICEF said it was sending medicines, warm clothing, tents and tarpaulins for shelter, and hygiene items such as soap, detergent, towels, sanitary pads and water buckets.

Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Taliban-run Health Ministry in Kabul, called for international aid, and as of Monday, Iran, India, Japan and the European Union had committed support, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal told The New York Times.

Britain has also announced £1 million ($2 million) in emergency funding for earthquake victims, but has said it will ensure aid does not go to the Taliban by channelling it through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Red Cross (IFRC).

Reuters, AP

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