Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 23: After a strong earthquake killed at least 1,000 people and left thousands more homeless, desperate rescuers raced against time and heavy rain on Thursday to reach cut-off districts in eastern Afghanistan.
The rugged east was most hit by Wednesday’s 5.9-magnitude earthquake, which brought down electricity and phone towers and caused rock and mudslides that blocked mountain highways.
“Getting information from the ground is very difficult because of bad networks,” Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of information for badly hit Paktika province, told AFP Thursday.
“The area has been affected by floods because of heavy rains last night… it is also difficult to access the affected sites,” he added.
He also said that there was no immediate update to the death toll. The catastrophe presents a significant logistical challenge for Afghanistan’s new Taliban administration, which has cut itself off from much of the world by enacting strict Islamist law that oppresses women and children.
Following the Taliban takeover last August, the aid-dependent nation saw the majority of its foreign aid cut off, and even before the earthquake, the UN issued a warning about a humanitarian crisis that threatened the entire population.
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the international organisation has “completely mobilised” to provide assistance, sending medical personnel, food, medicine, trauma kits, and emergency shelter to the earthquake zone.
According to a tweet from the Afghan government’s spokesman on Thursday, Zabihullah Mujahid, assistance flights had arrived from Iran and Qatar, while Pakistan had dispatched trucks across the land border with tents, food, and medical equipment.
The earthquake caused rockfalls and mudslides that destroyed hamlets placed precariously on steep slopes in areas already affected by excessive rain.
