An earthquakes has killed more than 1,400 people and injured at least 2,800 others and rescuers are now struggling to reach remote areas due to rough mountainous terrain and inclement weather.
The disaster will further stretch the resources of the war-torn nation’s Taliban administration, already grappling with crises ranging from a sharp drop in foreign aid to deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Kabul, Sharafat Zaman, has called for international aid to tackle the devastation brought by the quake of magnitude 6.
Administration spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the earthquake killed 812 people in the Eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar,
A student at Al-Falah University in the Eastern city of Jalalabad, Ziaul Haq Mohammadi told journalists that he was studying in his room at home when the quake struck and he tried to stand up but was knocked over by the power of the tremor.
By today evening, rescuers were battling to reach remote mountainous areas cut off from mobile networks along the Pakistani border, where mudbrick homes dotting the slopes collapsed in the quake.
“The area of the earthquake was affected by heavy rain in the last 24-48 hours as well, so the risk of landslides and rock slides is also quite significant – that is why many of the roads are impassable,” Kate Carey, an officer at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian said.
Additional Reporting from Associated Press.
