The 5.9-magnitude earthquake that hit a poor and isolated region in southeast Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan on Wednesday (June 22) killed more than 1,000 people, 3,000 injured and thousands homeless.

The fragile houses with mud brick walls did not resist the earthquakes and the survivors found themselves completely destitute.

They need shelter, to protect themselves from the rain and the cold, unusual in this season, but also food, water and first aid products.

"There are no blankets, no tents, no shelters (...). We need food and water. Our whole water distribution system is destroyed. Everything is devastated, the houses are destroyed. People can only pull the dead (from the rubble) and bury them," Zaitullah Ghurziwal, a resident of Bermal district in the worst-affected province of Paktika, told AFP.

Relief operations are complicated by the isolation of this region and the weather.

The rains have caused landslides that are slowing the delivery of aid, and have damaged telephone and power lines.

This earthquake represents a major challenge for the Taliban, which took power in mid-August 2021 after 20 years of insurgency and alienated the international community with their ultra-rigorous conception of Islam.

International aid, which had carried the country at arm's length for two decades, was cut off after their accession to power, and has since been coming back only in dribs and drabs.

And the country has since been mired in a deep financial and humanitarian crisis.                  

The UN "fully mobilized"

The Taliban government said it was doing its best to help the victims and appealed to the international community for help.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the UN was "fully mobilized" to help Afghanistan.

According to its services, the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) distributed tents, blankets and plastic sheeting;

the World Food Program (WFP) delivered food for about 14,000 people in Paktika;

and the World Health Organization (WHO) has provided 10 tonnes of medical equipment sufficient for 5,400 surgeries.

The European Union estimated that 270,000 people living in the areas affected by the earthquake would need assistance and released initial emergency aid of one million euros.

Pakistan, Iran and Qatar have also sent aid to the disaster victims.

And the United States, which withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of August after 20 years of war, said it was working with its humanitarian partners to send medical teams.

Some countries are reluctant to provide aid directly to the Taliban for fear that it will be diverted.

"Aid distribution will be transparent," deputy government spokesman Bilal Karimi told AFP.

"Several countries have supported us and have been by our side."

The urgency is great for the most fragile: the elderly and children.

The NGO Save the Children estimated on Thursday that more than 118,000 children were affected by the disaster.

"A lot of children most likely now have no access to clean water, food and a safe place to sleep," she said.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies at the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. 

The deadliest earthquake in its recent history (5,000 dead) took place in May 1998 in the provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan in the northeast of the country.

With AFP

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