Local officials said at least 300 people were killed in the 5.9-magnitude earthquake that struck southeast Afghanistan today and they feared a greater loss.
“Hundreds of homes were destroyed and, unfortunately, 300 civilians were killed and more than 500 injured,” the country’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, said in a statement. Said.
The earthquake affected the provinces of Paktika and Host.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said that the 5.9-degree earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 km, at 01:30, in an inaccessible area close to the Pakistani border.
A second tremor of 4.5 degrees occurred in the same area and within minutes.
“We call on aid agencies to provide emergency assistance to earthquake victims to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy government spokesman. He stated that many houses were destroyed and many people were trapped under the rubble.
Yakub Manzor, a Paktika tribal leader, said most of the wounded were from the Giyan area and were transported by ambulance and helicopters.
“Local markets are closed and people rushed to help in the affected areas,” he told AFP by phone.
Photos of destroyed homes in this impoverished and isolated rural area circulated on social media. The videos show some residents transporting the injured to the helicopter.
The country’s emergency services, which have been limited in personnel and capacity for many years, are not ready to face major natural disasters.
– Frequent earthquakes – The earthquake was felt in many provinces in the region and in the capital city of Kabul, which is 200 km north of the earthquake’s epicenter.
It was also felt in Pakistan, but so far no damage or loss of life has been reported in the neighboring country.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy and said the Pakistani government was working to support his Afghan counterparts.
“The European Union is monitoring the situation (…) and is ready to provide and coordinate emergency assistance,” said EU special envoy for Afghanistan Tomas Niklasson.
The UN announced that it is investigating aid needs.
Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the earthquake victims at the weekly general audience meeting in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
Pope said, “I express my sympathy for those affected by the earthquake and the injured. I pray especially for those who lost their lives and their families.”
Afghanistan experiences frequent earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush region, located between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
Disasters can be devastating due to the low resilience of Afghan rural homes.
The 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck the Hindu Kush Mountains in October 2015 killed more than 380 people in both countries.
Among the Afghan victims were 12 girls who tried to flee the school in a panic during the earthquake.
Since the Taliban came back to power in August last year, Afghanistan has been experiencing a serious financial and humanitarian crisis caused by the blockade of millions of assets abroad and the suspension of international aid that has supported the country for two decades and now comes in. .
Aid agencies and the UN insist the country needs billions of dollars this year to recover from the crisis.
source: Noticias
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