Aid groups scrambled on Thursday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people in an area blighted by poor infrastructure, as the country faces dire economic and hunger crises.
The slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, concerns people working in the humanitarian space, like Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer in Transitional Justice at the American University of Afghanistan. “This is a very patchwork, band-aid solution for a problem that we need to start thinking (about) mid to long term… what do we do when (another disaster) hits?” he told CNN by phone.
The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were flimsily made out of wood, mud and other materials vulnerable to damage.
Humanitarian agencies are converging on the area, but its remote location has complicated rescue efforts.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has successfully dispatched humanitarian aid and assistance to families in Paktika and Khost provinces to cover the needs of about 4,000 people, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres said during a Thursday press briefing.
Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the “priority needs include emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance, health and water and sanitation, as well as hygiene support.”
He added that the World Food Program (WFP) has confirmed stocks of food will be able to serve at least 14,000 in the hardest-hit Paktika province.
“At least 18 trucks are making their way to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units,” a WFP statement released Thursday said.
UNICEF Afghanistan tweeted that they were able to distribute “hygiene kits, winter kits, emergency family kitchen kits, tents, blankets, warm clothes and tarpaulin” to affected individuals in Paktika and Khost.
Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.
The quake coincided with heavy monsoon rain and wind between June 20 and 22, which has hampered search efforts and helicopter travel.
As medics and emergency staff from around the country attempt to access the site, help is expected to be limited as a number of organizations pulled out of the aid-dependent country when the Taliban took power in August last year.
Those that remain are stretched thin. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized “all of the resources” from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. But, as one WHO official put it, “the resources are overstretched here, not just for this region.”
The international community’s hesitancy to deal with the Taliban and the group’s “very messy bureaucracy where it becomes difficult to gain information from one source” has led to a communication gap in the rescue efforts, Baheer — who is also the founder of aid group Save Afghans from Hunger — said.
“At the core of everything is how politics has translated into this gap of communication, not just between countries and the Taliban, but international aid organizations and the Taliban as well,” he added.
Baheer gives an example of how he has been acting as a conduit of information with the WFP and other aid organizations, informing them that Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense were offering to airlift aid from humanitarian organizations to badly hit areas.
In the meantime, some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight. The United Nations says 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed. Pictures from the badly hit Paktika province, where most of the deaths have been reported, show homes reduced to dust and rubble.
Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP deputy country director in Afghanistan, described the situation on the ground as “very bleak,” where some of the villages in heavily affected districts “are completely decimated or 70% have collapsed,” she said.
Members of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake.
“There will be months and potentially years of building back,” she said. “The needs are so much more massive than just food… It could be shelter for example, to be able to facilitate the movement of that food as well as the customs clearance, logistics would be helpful.”
Officials say aid is reaching the affected areas.
The government has so far distributed food, tents, clothing, and other supplies to the quake-hit provinces, according to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense’s official Twitter account. Medical and relief teams deployed by the Afghan government are already present in the quake-hit areas, and attempting to transport the wounded to medical facilities and health centers by land and air, it added.
CNN
