Afghanistan

The hardline Islamist leadership says help needs to be 'scaled up' after the quake devastated towns and villages in the country's mountainous east.

The children and my family were under the mud.” “I was away from my family who live in a remote village in the Gyan district. One survivor, Arup Khan, 22, who was pulled out of a collapsed guesthouse, described the moment the earthquake struck. Footage released by the Taliban showed residents digging a long slit trench to bury the dead. There were bodies wrapped in blankets everywhere. Huzaifa said more than 1,500 people were injured, many critically.

An estimated 1500 others were reported injured in the 6.1 magnitude quake. Officials said the death toll could rise.

That may prove difficult given the international isolation of Afghanistan under the Taliban, who were toppled from power by the U.S. in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. “When such a big incident happens in any country, there is a need for help from other countries,” said Sharafuddin Muslim, deputy minister of state for disaster management. Rutted roads — difficult to pass in the best of times — may have been badly damaged, and landslides from recent rains made access even more difficult. Residents in the remote area near the Pakistani border searched for victims dead or alive by digging with their bare hands through the rubble, according to footage shown by the Bakhtar news agency. Other victims were treated on the ground. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

The disaster posed a new test for Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and relief agencies already struggling with the country's multiple humanitarian crises. The quake ...

That may prove difficult given the international isolation of Afghanistan under the Taliban, who were toppled from power by the US in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. "When such a big incident happens in any country, there is a need for help from other countries," said Sharafuddin Muslim, deputy minister of state for disaster management. The roads, which are rutted and difficult to travel in the best of circumstances, may have been badly damaged, and landslides from recent rains made access even more difficult. Still, officials from multiple UN agencies said the Taliban were giving them full access to the area. The European seismological agency said the quake was felt over 500km by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Residents in the remote area near the Pakistani border searched for victims dead or alive by digging with their bare hands through the rubble, according to footage shown by the Bakhtar news agency. "We are not optimistic today." Other victims were treated on the ground. The disaster inflicted by the 6.1-magnitude quake heaps more misery on a country where millions face increasing hunger and poverty and the health system has been crumbling since the Taliban retook power nearly 10 months ago amid the US and Nato withdrawal. The disaster posed a new test for Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and relief agencies already struggling with the country's multiple humanitarian crises. One person could be seen receiving IV fluids while sitting in a plastic chair outside the rubble of his home, and still more were sprawled on gurneys. An estimated 1500 others were reported injured, the state-run news agency said.

Desperate search and rescue operations were underway in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday following an earthquake that killed more than 1000 people, ...

On Wednesday, the WHO said it had mobilized "all of the resources" from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. "Our teams do not have specific equipment to take people from under the rubble," Alakbarov said. The move has crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government. Photos from nearby Paktika province, a rural and mountainous region where most of the deaths have been reported, show houses reduced to rubble. At least 1,500 people have been reported injured -- but officials warn the toll is likely to rise as many families were sleeping in flimsy housing structures when the quake hit.

The disaster inflicted by the quake heaps more misery on a country where millions face increasing hunger and poverty and the health system has been ...

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Survivors dug by hand on Thursday through villages in eastern Afghanistan reduced to rubble by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people, ...

In a news bulletin on Thursday, Afghanistan state television made a point to acknowledge that US President Joe Biden — their one-time enemy — offered condolences over the earthquake and had promised aid. "It is hard to gather all the exact information because it is mountainous area," said Sultan Mahmood, Speray district's chief. The roads, which are rutted and difficult to travel in the best of circumstances, may have been badly damaged, and landslides from recent rains made access even more difficult. In neighbouring Khost province's Speray district, which also sustained serious damage, men stood atop what once was a mud home. The disaster inflicted by the 6-magnitude quake heaps more misery on a country where millions face increasing hunger and poverty and the health system has been crumbling since the Taliban retook power nearly 10 months ago amid the US and Nato withdrawal. An estimated 1,500 others were reported injured, the state-run news agency said.

At least 1000 people killed by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in remote, landslide-prone regions of eastern Afghanistan.

At the Paktika regional hospital, badly injured patients were being turned away. The death toll reported as of Thursday was equal to that of a quake in 2002 in northern Afghanistan. Those are the deadliest since 1998, when an earthquake of 6.1 in magnitude and subsequent tremors in the remote northeast killed at least 4,500 people. The Taliban government has appealed for international aid. “The Paktika regional hospital still lacks very important resources,” Latifi said. “Despite the sanctions that have been imposed by the international community, the government has done whatever it can in its capacity and the Afghan Red Crescent has immediately dispatched emergency aid to the area, along with the Turkish Red Crescent and other agencies,” Balkhi said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter that eight trucks of food and other necessities from Pakistan arrived in Paktika. He also said on Thursday that two planes of humanitarian aid from Iran and another from Qatar had arrived in the country.

Unknown numbers were buried in the rubble of ruined, often mud-built homes by the magnitude 6.1 earthquake. The Taliban authorities have called for more ...

According to the UN, 93% of households in Afghanistan suffer food insecurity. "It's June and the weather shouldn't be like this. There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes. "My brother and his family died, and I just learned it after many hours. Health teams, medical supplies, food and emergency shelters were en route to the quake zone, UN officials said. My shoulder was dislocated, my head was hurt but I got out.

Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1000 ...

"People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need." "The situation is still evolving, and we are pushing more resources as the situation needs," he said. India expressed "sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families," according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday. But a WHO official told CNN's Eleni Giokos that logistics were stretched. The situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his condolences and an offer of support in a tweet on Wednesday. "Deeply grieved to learn about the earthquake in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives," he wrote. According to to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rain and wind is "hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land this afternoon." "Measures were also taken to provide cash assistance and treatment," Mujahid said and added that agencies were "instructed to use air and land transport for the delivery of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities and for the transportation of the wounded." A team of medics and seven helicopters have been sent to the area to transport injured people to nearby hospitals, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said in a tweet on Wednesday. "The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night ... and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties," he added. "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for the generous support of all countries international organizations individuals and foundations to provide and deliver urgent humanitarian aid," a press statement from the country's diplomatic missions read.

The 5.9-magnitude quake, in Afghanistan's remote southeast near the Pakistan border, injured more than 1600 people, officials said.

Afghans had been struggling to emerge from decades of conflict: the 20-year war between the United States and its allies against militants, the civil war of the 1990s, the Soviet occupation before that. The earthquake struck in the middle of the night, when almost everyone in the area was asleep at home. The Taliban have struggled to attract more foreign aid for public services from Western donors since announcing edicts barring girls from attending secondary schools and restricting women’s rights. Mohammad Almas, the head of aid and appeals at Qamar, a charity active in the area, said that because the earthquake hit at night, most people were inside sleeping. Many of the country’s assets overseas have been frozen and international support has collapsed. The location of the earthquake fault probably played a role as well. The Taliban have struggled to attract foreign aid from Western donors since announcing edicts barring girls from attending secondary schools and restricting women’s rights. During the day, people might be in offices or schools, which might be of higher quality construction than homes. That toll was expected to rise, reflecting the poverty of the region, where some residents live in homes of clay and straw, and the difficult terrain, far from many clinics or hospitals that could help the wounded. More than 1,000 people died and 1,600 others were injured, with the neighboring province of Paktika suffering the worst damage. Most attract little attention and cause few deaths, but the death toll in Afghanistan has surpassed 1,000 and is expected to rise as search-and-rescue operations continue. He said the U.N. lacked the equipment needed to rescue people trapped under rubble and that Turkey was best positioned to help with its search-and-rescue capability.

Almost a year after Kabul's fall and the US's withdrawal, the economy remains in free fall, and the country faces a near-constant humanitarian disaster.

In some ways, the central bank funds and sanctions are the two points of leverage still available to the West, the things it can use to pressure the Taliban on reforms. But it is also risky, to make what should be a matter of basic human rights into a kind of quid pro quo — and there are few guarantees the Taliban will keep its word, or work to the benefit of the Afghan people. “What it does is that it will multiply the amount of the trouble that will haunt us again, later.” “That’s the whole purpose of what we want to do is to avoid financial sector crisis, and to allow businesses who are having difficulty to be able to pay for imports to be able to do that.” And politically, it’s difficult for the US to release these funds as long as the Taliban remains in charge. “The change of the government shouldn’t lead to the freezing of assets in the case when, for example, a country doesn’t recognize the results of an election or [the] overthrow of government. With the executive order, the administration tried to guarantee that some of the assets would return to Afghanistan in some form, though it’s still not clear what form that might be. Both the United States and the United Nations had existing sanctions on members of the Taliban; for example, those accused of orchestrating or coordinating attacks on the US and its allies or of having financial ties to terrorists. This was brought on by the near-instant evaporation of billions of dollars in foreign aid, sanctions on Taliban leaders, and the US’s freezing of Afghanistan’s foreign currency reserves. The Taliban can blame the West for sanctions and blocking the central bank reserves. And one of the toughest measures remains in place: The US continues to block Afghanistan’s central bank from accessing about $7 billion of its own assets, funds necessary to triage an economy in free fall. This is Afghanistan in the months after the Taliban marched into Kabul, the Afghan government fell, and the United States withdrew.

There are hundreds of reported casualties, with rescue missions under way to help those who might be trapped. With reports of homes having been destroyed in ...

In May, WFP provided 590,000 people in Paktika province and 320,000 in Khost with emergency food and nutrition assistance. WFP works in all 34 provinces of the country and has a fleet of 239 trucks on the road every day, delivering food to some 800 food distribution sites across the country. At least 18 trucks are making their way to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units.

Umusaza ubabajwe n'ibyashenywe n'umutingito w'isi wo ku gipimo cya 6.1 washegeshe intara ya Paktika muri Afghanistan. Haciye amasaha 5.

Organised rescue efforts are struggling to reach the site of an earthquake in Afghanistan that has killed more than 1,000 people, as survivors dig through ...

Iran has promised us help and their rescue teams are on their way coming to the area. Iran has promised us help and their rescue teams are on their way coming to the area. “We have sent dozens of people to rescue people from under the rubbles but it is not enough. However, officials from multiple UN agencies said the Taliban were allowing full access to the area. Rescue efforts have been complicated by the fact that many countries have suspended or cut back on aid to Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover last year. An estimated 1,500 other people were reported injured, the state-run news agency said.

June 23 2022, 9:16 a.m.. Taliban fighters are seen in Kabul, Afghanistan on June 18, 2022.

Instead, the U.S. has sent a small amount of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, much of which is consumed by the inflation caused by the U.S. seizure of the central bank’s funds. The prison is preferable to the alternative, he added. Abdul is still holding out hope for a last-minute surge of support, while attempting to find ways out of the country. “For me it’s like a prison,” said Abdul, adding that his wife is riddled with depression and anxiety. The children can’t leave for school or to play during the day. The U.S. helped construct the bank and offered to hold the reserves — totaling $7 billion — in an account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The reserves were used like those of any central bank: to stabilize the currency, fight inflation, and balance out import and export payments. Mauro said that more focus on the plight of those at risk is worthwhile but will also produce a backlash. Abdul guessed that there had been around 400 people holed up in the project’s safe houses. Up to 95 percent of Afghans aren’t getting enough to eat, according to the United Nations. To maintain the safe houses, he said, they need about $8,000 a month. The Afghan Liberty Project, which pulled together safe housing for hundreds of Afghans at risk of retaliation by the Taliban for working with the U.S.-backed government, has informed its residents of the deadline, according to an Afghan man who, along with his family, now faces an uncertain future. “There was a lot of interest in the beginning, but then it declined and ended altogether as Afghanistan left the headlines.

Doctors in Afghanistan say many children may have been killed in Wednesday's earthquake, while the death toll is expected to rise.

According to the UN, 93 percent of households in Afghanistan suffer food insecurity. There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes. "We have nothing to eat." We cannot reconstruct our homes again," she said. My shoulder was dislocated, my head was hurt but I got out. I was trapped, but I could see the sky.

A magnitude-6.1 earthquake in remote Afghanistan exacerbates a tricky ethical dilemma for Australia and other like-minded nations: How can they help Afghan ...

"The harsh winter last winter was another big challenge for people and the other thing is the brain drain. "What we can see is the increasing poverty and a worse life situation for the people, that's what we can see and feel inside the people of Afghanistan," Dr Haneef says. Afghanistan's ambassador in Canberra — who is part of the government in exile and independent from the Taliban — has said the group's grip on power should not prevent the Australian government from donating to the country. "The situation on the ground is in a critical situation." Her entire family is buried under there. "The Taliban is financially unable to assist the people to the extent that is needed," the Taliban's Abdul Qahar Balki said.

Health ministry says aid has begun to arrive to the area affected by earthquake that killed at least 1000 people.

Drought has undermined food production and 9 million Afghans face famine. Really poor areas where people have the most basic living standards,” he said. And again getting there is extremely difficult.” “We call on natural disaster management agencies and the international community to provide immediate and comprehensive aid to the Afghan people,” he posted on twitter. We call on natural disaster management agencies & the international community to provide immediate & comprehensive aid to the Afghan people on basis of humanitarianism so that the victims are able to financially rebuild their livelihoods. “Aid has arrived to the area and it is continuing but more is needed,” he said.

The tragedy of Wednesday's earthquake is compounded by Afghanistan's political isolation and economic unraveling.

The afflicted regions were held by an alliance of factions opposed to the Taliban, who controlled the bulk of the country. That doesn’t seem imminent, though White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement this week that the United States was “the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, and our humanitarian partners are already delivering medical care and shelter supplies on the ground.” A host of international aid organizations have rushed to help, but the prevailing sanctions complicated how cash flows enter the country and how swiftly outside actors can impact matters on the ground. “If the economy is not able to recover and grow meaningfully and sustainably, then the Afghan people will face repeated humanitarian crises, potentially spurring mass migration and making conditions ripe for radicalization and renewed armed conflict,” he said. “We need tents and money to rebuild,” he said — echoing fears among the villagers that their quake-damaged homes could collapse completely, my colleagues noted. Senior Taliban officials rushed to the affected districts in a show of empathy but demanded outside assistance. Almost half the country’s population faces acute hunger, while close to 6 in 10 Afghans are in need of humanitarian assistance. As a result, Afghanistan is in the grips of a staggering series of social and economic crises: According to the United Nations, 15 years of economic growth have been shaved off in 10 months, with the country’s economy contracting some 30 to 40 percent. There are myriad harrowing accounts of survivors digging with their hands through the debris in search of loved ones. The fire hose of foreign cash and international aid that propped up the U.S.-backed governments in Kabul for two decades was turned off overnight. The Taliban contravened earlier assurances over their rule and drastically curtailed women’s rights, barring access to education for schoolgirls beyond sixth grade and imposing other draconian Islamic controls. Billions of dollars of Afghan foreign reserves were frozen by the U.S. Treasury.

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of 10km in Afghanistan's south-east in the early hours of Wednesday while most people were asleep. It's estimated ...

Save the Children has been supporting communities and protecting children's rights across Afghanistan since 1976, including during periods of conflict, regime change, and natural disasters. Until the economic crisis is addressed, and rising poverty stemmed, children will continue to suffer and it will be harder for humanitarian agencies to respond – including to disasters like this tragic earthquake.” We have reports of people sheltering out in the open under plastic sheets and many children are now most likely without clean drinking water, food and a safe place to sleep. We’re also well set up to provide emergency cash assistance to families, which is so important in crises like this when families have lost everything. The 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of 10km in Afghanistan’s south-east in the early hours of Wednesday while most people were asleep. When separated from loved ones or orphaned, they are also at further risk of exploitation and abuse.