Kabul/Mazar Dara, Afghanistan (Reuters)-A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit Southeast of Afghanistan on Thursday, the German Geoscience Research Center said, the third tremor in the same region since Sunday, when one of the country’s most deadly earthquakes has killed more than 2,200 people.
Naqullah Rahimi, spokesman for the Nangarhar Province Health Department, said the earthquake was the remote District of Shiwa, near the border with Pakistan, with initial reports of damage to the Barkashkot area, although the details are still being collected.
The tremor, at a depth of 10km, occurred after the previous earthquakes that razed villages in the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, left tens of thousands of homeless and wounded over 3,600 people.
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The survivors were homeless, with the United Nations and other agencies citing a critical need for food, medical supplies, and shelter, while aid groups warned of the reduction of resources.
This Thursday, rescue teams removed bodies from the rubble of houses destroyed by earthquakes in Afghanistan.
Search operations continued in the mountainous areas of the East reached by the earthquake, the Taliban government said, announcing a new number of 2,205 dead and at least 3,640 injured.
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“Everything we had was destroyed,” said Aalem Jan, whose house in the most affected Kunar province was devastated by the tremors.
“The only thing left was the body’s clothes,” said Jan, who sat with his family under trees next to his stacked belongings.
The first earthquake of magnitude 6, one of the deadliest in Afghanistan in recent years, has caused widespread damage and destruction in the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar on Sunday when it reached a surface depth of 10km.
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A second earthquake of 5.5 magnitude on Tuesday caused panic and interrupted rescue efforts, making rocks slide through the mountains and blocking the roads to villages in remote areas.
More than 6,700 houses were destroyed, according to authorities. The United Nations warned that the number of dead may increase as time runs out for survivors trapped under the rubble.
Humanitarian needs are “vast and growing rapidly,” said the International Federation of Red Cross Societies and Crescent Red.
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“Up to 84,000 people were directly and indirectly affected, with thousands of displaced people,” he added, citing initial numbers.
In some of the most affected villages in Kunar province, two out of three people were injured, while 98% of the buildings were destroyed or damaged by tremors, according to an assessment of the UK -based humanitarian institution.
The survivors who desperately sought by their families rolled the rubble, carried bodies on fabric stretchers, and dug graves with picks as they awaited the arrival of help.
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Afghanistan is likely to deadly earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the tectonic plates of India and Eurasia meet.
With houses made mainly from dry masonry, stone and wood, some families preferred to be outdoors to return home, as tremors continued to occur at regular intervals.
The houses offer little protection against earthquakes, on unstable soil due to heavy rain days, the United Nations office said for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
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Resources for rescue and relief work are scarce in the 42 million South-Asian nation, hit by war, poverty and aid reduction, where the strict climate represents an additional challenge.
United States President Donald Trump’s financing cuts for foreign aid and the frustration of donors with Taliban restrictive policies in relation to women and their restrictions on humanitarian workers intensified the isolation of Afghanistan.
The World Health Organization pointed to a $ 3 million financing gap, saying that it is essential to maintain the flow of medicines, trauma kits and essential products amid growing demand.
The UN World Food Program has financing and inventories to support survivors for just four weeks, his national boss John Aylieff told Reuters on Wednesday.
Jacopo Caridi, from the Norwegian Refugee Council, asked the donors to go beyond the help to save lives, to guarantee the Afgan a chance of a future beyond the perpetual emergency.
“The earthquake should serve as a clear reminder: Afghanistan cannot be left to face one crisis after another,” he warned.
