Rescuers were desperately trying on Thursday to help victims of the earthquake that killed at least a thousand people in southeastern Afghanistan, but their efforts were hampered by lack of resources, mountainous terrain and heavy rains. .
The earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.9, occurred in the early hours of Wednesday this poor and difficult to access rural region, bordering Pakistan.
Already grappling with an economic and humanitarian crisis, Afghanistan is hit by a new tragedy, which constitutes a heavy challenge for the Taliban, in power since mid-August.
A thousand dead
At least a thousand people have been killed and 1,500 injured in the most affected province of Paktika alone, according to the authorities, who fear that the toll will rise further, with many people remaining trapped under the rubble of their collapsed houses.
"It is very difficult to get information from the ground because of the poor (telephone) network," Paktika provincial information and culture chief Mohammad Amin Huzaifa said on Thursday.
Difficult to access
In addition, "it is difficult to access the affected sites" especially since "the area was hit last night by floods caused by heavy rains", he added, stressing that no new assessment was not yet available.
The heavy rains also caused landslides that slowed relief efforts and damaged telephone and power lines.
The Taliban government has called in the army, but it has few resources.
Its financial resources are very limited, after the freezing of billions of assets held abroad and the abrupt halt to Western international aid, which has carried the country at arm's length for 20 years and now only returns to dropper since the return to power of the Islamists.
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