The number of deaths from Afghanistan earthquake rises to more than 1,400 as rescuers in the province of Kunar fight to reach the survivors

The death tolls of a major earthquake that shook east of Afghanistan On Sunday night he has climbed to at least 1,411, the ruling TalibanChief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday, while rescue operations, hindered by difficult land, continued throughout the affected region. At least 3,124 people were injured and 5,412 houses were destroyed, Mujahid said.

“The destruction is overwhelming. The entire villages have flattened, and people are still trapped under the debris of the collapsed houses. The roads are blocked, which makes it almost impossible to move the supplies or evacuate the injured,” Dr. Abudl Majeed Ahmadzai, director of the Kabul Asia hospital, who traveled to the affected region, told News themezone.

In the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, affected, the earthquake caught people under the debris when the houses, which are made to a large extent of wood and mud in the region, collapsed over them while they slept.

Ahmadzai said the injured were taken on foot for hours, sometimes on makeshift stretchers, only to achieve basic help.

“The situation is desperate. The food is scarce, medical aid is insufficient and the only effective way to provide assistance is by helicopter. Without air support, reaching these communities is almost impossible,” Ahamdzai told News themezone.

In the places where the helicopters could not land, the Taliban spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said that “dozens of command forces were on the air to get the wounded out of the debris and move them to a safer land.”

Fitrat said that a camp had been established in the Khas Kunar district of Kunar, as well as two coordination sites near the disaster areas, to help coordinate emergency aid and help with the rescue operation, the transfer of the injured and the burial of the dead.

The United Nations urged the international community to take a step forward to help.

“We cannot allow ourselves to forget the people of Afghanistan who face multiple crises, multiple clashes and the resistance of the communities has been saturated,” said the Ass, the UN resident coordinator for Afghanistan, Indrika Matwatte. “These are life and death decisions while we run against time to reach people.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Kabul, Sharafat Zaman, requested international aid to help handle the devastation caused by the earthquake.

“We need it because here many people lost their lives and houses,” Zaman told the Reuters news agency.

The earthquake of magnitude 6, which took a step at 11:40 pm on Sunday, was the Third important earthquake attack Afghanistan from the The Taliban seized the control of the country in 2021. Its acquisition caused deep cuts in the financing of international aid, since many donors, including the United States, were concerned that financial support could help finance the Taliban government.

Since the power resumed, the Taliban have brought many Restrictive policies, especially attacked to women and girlsincluding excluding them from secondary education and most career options.

Policies have marginalized women and have made them much more difficult to access basic services, including medical care. With women who are now prevented from working in many roles of medical care, there is concern that some victims of earthquakes can be reluctant to seek medical assistance.

• Rescue
• Pakistan
• Afghanistan
• Disaster
• Earthquake