Over 70% homes destroyed in some areas, about 1,000 killed in Paktika province, according to official estimates
\nKABUL
\nRescuers in eastern Afghanistan continued relief efforts on Thursday to help the survivors of a deadly earthquake that according to official figures killed at least 1,000 people in the mountainous region.
\nThe earthquake of magnitude 6.1 hit areas of Paktika and Khost provinces neighboring Pakistan on Tuesday night, flattening homes as people slept inside.
\nPaktika was worst affected, with officials estimating that more than 1,000 people were killed and over 1,500 injured in the province\u2019s Gayan and Barmal districts alone.
\nThe extent of the destruction in the villages tucked away in the mountains was slow in coming to light, as search and rescue efforts were hampered by heavy rain and poor connectivity in the affected areas. UN World Food Program teams deployed to deliver emergency supplies estimated that more than 70 percent of homes in the worst-hit regions have been destroyed.
\n\u201cThe whole area looks like an open camp,\u201d Qais Mohammad Muslim, an aid worker who arrived in Gayan district, told Arab News. \u201cPeople have no shelter and no food to eat. The aid (that reached) the area so far is little and insufficient.\u201d
\nAbdul Qudos, a resident of Paktika, said he had never experienced a quake as powerful and destructive.
\n\u201cEntire villages were drowned in soil in Barmal and Gayan districts. There are families who lost all members,\u201d he said. \u201cWe must do everything possible to help them. The international community has to deliver urgent aid to avoid further damage and loss.\u201d
\nThe response is complicated because rescuers are working without heavy equipment and proper medical support, after many organizations pulled out of the aid-dependent country when the Taliban seized power last August.
\nIn the wake of the Taliban government\u2019s call for foreign assistance, its chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Thursday that aircraft with aid have already arrived from Qatar and Iran, and trucks with food reached Paktika by road from Pakistan.
\nBut more aid is needed.
\nNaeem Hakim from the Afghan aid group Ehsas Welfare and Social Services Organization, who arrived in Paktika on Wednesday, said local hospitals were struggling to treat the injured.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s an urgent need for blood (for) the seriously injured and medicine,\u201d he told Arab News. \u201cSix hundred to 700 wounded people have been brought to the nearest hospital in Urgun district since yesterday. Around 200 are still there today. The more serious ones are transferred to the military hospital in the provincial capital Sharana, the provincial hospital and hospitals in Gardez and Ghazni.\u201d
\nThe quake was the deadliest in Afghanistan since 1998, when magnitude 6.5 tremors killed more than 4,000 people in Takhar province in the country\u2019s north.
\nRamiz Alakbarov, UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said on Wednesday at least $15 million of aid was needed to respond to the disaster \u2014 a figure expected to rise in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over 70% homes destroyed in some areas, about 1,000 killed in Paktika province, according to official estimates KABUL Rescuers in eastern Afghanistan continued relief efforts on Thursday to help the survivors of a deadly earthquake that according to official figures killed at least 1,000 people in the mountainous region. The earthquake of magnitude 6.1 hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75,3777,6004],"class_list":{"0":"post-267775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-earthquake","10":"tag-rescuers"},"yoast_head":"\n