Afghanistan’s Winnipeggers are concerned after an earthquake in the country’s eastern region killed at least 1,000 people and destroyed hundreds of homes.
The 6.1-magnitude quake hit Paktika and Khost provinces around 1:30 am local time, when most families were sleeping indoors. In addition to the dead, at least 1,500 people have been injured.
“It’s a very remote area and given the current circumstances in Afghanistan, you know, given the humanitarian crisis, I’m worried, because how are they going to treat the people, how will humanitarian aid get there?” said Ariana Yaftali, co-founder of the Canadian Afghan Women’s Organization.
Infrastructure in the region is in poor condition, he said.
To make matters worse, the political instability in the country since the Taliban regained control last year has prompted many international aid organizations to leave.
“The Taliban do not have the ability, the capacity, the will to help the people of Afghanistan,” Yaftali said.
Many countries, including Canada, no longer have embassies in the country, meaning aid will have to be coordinated through the United Nations, he said. Most international airlines refuse to fly into the country and humanitarian organizations are reluctant to give money to the Taliban.
Yaftali wants aid organizations in Canada and the federal government to step up.
“Canada made a commitment early on, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, to bring in 40,000 Afghan refugees. We’re still seeing the government moving very slowly, there are still families there. So any kind of humanitarian support, including getting them to a safe place would be greatly appreciated.”
Footage from Paktika province, near the Pakistani border, showed victims being transported by helicopter to be airlifted out of the area, according to the Associated Press.
Others were treated on the ground. One resident could be seen receiving IV fluids as he sat in a plastic chair outside the rubble of his home and even more were lying on stretchers. Other images showed residents sifting through clay bricks and other debris from destroyed stone houses.
A powerful earthquake has rattled a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 920 people and injuring 600 others, officials said.
Abdul Farid Ahmad, a former Afghan journalist living in Winnipeg, is worried about friends he knows in the region affected by the devastating earthquake.
Houses in the rural area are not very sturdy, he said, and he has heard that entire families have been killed.
“All the victims are from the rural area,” he said. “The houses and buildings, which are in the rural areas, are not as strong as in the cities.”
People in Winnipeg who speak with contacts in the country fear there is a significant rise in the death toll.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society sent 4,000 blankets, 800 tents and 800 kitchen kits to the affected area, according to Abdul Wahid Rayan, director general of the state Bakhtar news agency.
The Italian medical aid group Emergency, which is still operating in Afghanistan, said it had dispatched seven ambulances and staff to areas closest to the quake zone.
At the moment, the death toll is equal to that of an earthquake in 2002 in northern Afghanistan. Both that and the latest quake are the deadliest since 1998, when a 6.1-magnitude quake and subsequent tremors in remote northeast Afghanistan killed at least 4,500 people.
Reference-www.cbc.ca