An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck South-East of Afghanistan on Thursday, said the German research center of Geosciences, the third tremor of the same region since Sunday, when one of the deadliest earthquakes in the country of years killed more than 2,200 people.
Naqibullah Rahimi, spokesperson for the department of health of the province of Nangarhar, said that the epicenter of the earthquake was in the district of Shiwa remote near the Pakistani border, with initial damage reports in the Barkashkot area, although details have always been collected.
The tremor, at a depth of 10 km (six miles), followed previous earthquakes which flattened the villages of the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, left tens of thousands of homeless and injured more than 3,600 people.
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According to the Taliban administration, the rescuers withdrew the bodies from the rubble while the number of confirmed deaths increased to 2,205, with at least 3,640 people injured, according to the administration of the Taliban. The survivors were left homeless while the aid groups warn against the reduction of resources.
“Everything we had been destroyed,” said Aalem Jan, whose house in Kunar province was flattened. “The only remaining things are these clothes on the back.” His family was sitting under trees with their property stacked next to them.
The first earthquake, Magnitude 6, struck a shallow depth of 10 km (six miles) on Sunday, one of the deadliest in Afghanistan in recent years. A second earthquake of magnitude 5.5 Tuesday caused panic and disrupted rescue efforts by triggering landslides and blocking the roads to distant villages.
More than 6,700 houses have been destroyed and the United Nations warned that the toll could increase while people remain trapped under rubble. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that humanitarian needs are “large and increased rapidly”, with up to 84,000 people affected and thousands of displaced people.
In some Kunar villages, two out of three people were killed or injured, and 98% of buildings destroyed or damaged, according to an assessment of Islamic Reliefs in the world.
Survivors continue to look for family members, carrying bodies on civilians and digging graves with bites. The video has shown trucks carrying flour and men with shovels heading towards remote mountain villages, while the commandos were extinguished in areas inaccessible to helicopters.
Afghanistan, subject to deadly earthquakes along the Hindu Kush chain, faces additional risks because many houses built in stone and wood offer little protection. Replicas and heavy recent rains have been unstable, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination said.
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Rescue resources are rare in the country beaten by the war of 42 million. The foreign assistance cuts by American president Donald Trump and the frustration of donors concerning the restrictions of the Taliban on women and humanitarian workers have deepened the isolation of Afghanistan.
The World Health Organization highlighted a funding for 3 million dollars required for drugs, trauma kits and supplies. The United Nations World Food Program said that he could only support survivors for four more weeks.
“Afghanistan cannot be left to face one crisis after another,” said Jacopo Caridi of the Norwegian Refugee Council, urging donors to go beyond vital help.
