A 5.9-magnitude earthquake was recorded last night in Afghanistan. Afghan authorities raised this Wednesday to 920 the number of dead and more than 600 those injured by the earthquakewhile the search for survivors continues in the biggest catastrophe since the Taliban’s rise to power.
"920 people died and 610 were injured" because of the earthquake mainly affected two provinces in eastern Afghanistan, on the border with PakistanDeputy Minister for Disaster Management and Response, Mawlavi Sharfuddin Muslim, said at a press conference.
The latest balance of deaths and injuries was also confirmed to Efe by a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Disaster Management and Response, Mohammad Nasim Haqqani, who specified that the most affected province was Paktika, followed by Khost and Nangarhar.
The earthquake was recorded on Tuesday night about 46 kilometers from Khost, capital of the province of the same name, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which also reported an aftershock of 4.5 degrees.
In addition, in neighboring Pakistan at least one person died. "when the roof of his house collapsed due to the earthquake"Taimoor Ali, spokesman for the Disaster Management Authority of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the event occurred, told Efe.
Images shared on social networks they show numerous houses destroyed and wounded being treated on stretchers out in the open in affected areas in Afghanistan.
The rescue
The Taliban government claimed that uses all its resources in rescue operationssending aid, helicopters and medical supplies, while asking humanitarian organizations in the country for help.
"Government you are working within your means. We hope that the international community and relief agencies will also help our people in this desperate situation."Taliban leader Anas Haqqani posted on Twitter.
The International Red Cross and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), among others, announced the immediate dispatch of assistance to the affected areas.
OCHA and the UN "are assessing needs and responding to damage following last night’s earthquake which has claimed hundreds of lives"assured the deputy representative of the UN Secretariat for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov.
"help is on the way"he added.
Humanitarian aid was already a vital issue in Afghanistan, immersed in a humanitarian crisis since the Islamists came to power almost a year ago, and international sanctions.
With scant resources, the Taliban already had trouble meeting the country’s basic needs, and limited forces to deal with large-scale emergencies in a timely manner.
Afghanistan is prone to earthquakesespecially in the area known as the Hindu Kush, with great seismic activity and the usual point of origin of telluric movements in the region.
In the middle of last January, another 5.3-magnitude earthquake shook northwestern Afghanistan, killing at least 26 people, according to UN data, and destroying 800 homes, mostly flimsy adobe houses, in different districts of the province. of Badghis.
Also in October 2015, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in the extreme northeast of the country left more than a hundred dead in Afghanistan and almost 300 dead in neighboring Pakistan, where more than 2,000 were also injured.
