Earthquake Death Toll In Afghanistan Increases To 2,205 People

JAKARTA - Rescue workers on Thursday evacuated bodies from the rubble of homes as the confirmed death toll hit more than 2,200, while survivors lost their homes, facing a grim future with warnings from global aid agencies about the depletion of resources.

Search operations continue in mountainous areas in eastern Afghanistan hit by the earthquake, the Taliban government said, announcing a new death toll of 2,205 with at least 3,640 injured.

"Everything we have has been destroyed," said Aalem Jan, whose home in Kunar Province was the worst affected by the earthquake, razed to the ground.

"The only thing left was the clothes we wore," said Jan, whose family sat under the tree with their belongings piled up beside them.

The first earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale, one of the deadliest in Afghanistan in recent years, resulted in widespread damage and destruction in the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar on Sunday, when the quake occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles).

The second earthquake measuring 5.5 on Tuesday caused panic and disrupted rescue efforts, as it caused rocks to slide down the mountain and cut the road to villages in remote areas.

More than 6,700 houses have been destroyed, authorities said. The United Nations has warned the death toll could rise as people are still trapped under the rubble while it is running low for survivors.

Humanitarian needs are "very large and are growing rapidly", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Association said.

"Until 84,000 people were directly and indirectly affected, with thousands of people displaced," he added, citing preliminary figures.

In some of the worst-affected villages in Kunar Province, two of the three people were killed or injured, while 98 percent of buildings were destroyed or damaged by the earthquake, according to a UK-based Islamic Relief Worldwide charity assessment.

Survivors desperate to find their family members filtered through the rubble, carried bodies on a woven stretcher, and dug graves with pickups while waiting for aid to arrive.

Video shows trucks, some loaded with sacks of flour and others carrying people with shovels, moving into remote villages on higher slopes. Authorities also deployed dozens of commandos at locations where helicopters could not accommodate them.

Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush Mountains, where tectonic plates of India and Eurasia meet.

With houses mostly made of dry brick, stone, and wood pairs, some families prefer to live in the open rather than return home as aftershocks continue to occur regularly.

The houses provided little protection from the earthquake, as the soil was unstable due to heavy rains for days, the United Nations Office said for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination.

Meanwhile, resources for rescue and limited aid efforts in South Asian countries of 42 million people are ravaged by war, poverty, and reduced aid, where bad weather presents further challenges.

The cuts in foreign aid funds by US President Donald Trump and the frustration of donors over the Taliban's policy of limiting women and restrictions on aid workers have exacerbated Afghanistan's isolation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has shown a funding gap of US$3 million, saying it is very important to maintain the availability of medicines, trauma equipment, and essential commodities amid rising demand.

Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has funds and stocks to support survivors for just four more weeks, the head of the program, John Atamaff, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Separately, Jacopo Caridi of the Norwegian Refugee Council, called for donors to provide more than just life-saving assistance to ensure Afghans have a better chance of a better future than a constant state of emergency.

"This earthquake should serve as a strong reminder: Afghanistan cannot be allowed to face a crisis after a crisis alone," he said.