Afghanistan was shaking this week by one of the deadliest Earthquakes in years to hit the country. Aid Organizations See Devastated Villages and Displaced Families in An Area That Is Barely Accessible. “Sometimes you have to walk for three hours.”
Samira Sayed Rahman Walks Up the Stairs of Her House in the Afghan Capital Kabul As She Answers The Phone. The Program Director of Save the Children has Just Returned From The Disaster Area in Kunar Province.
“It is one of the areas that has bone hit hardest,” She says. “You are defeated by what you see: Village after Village where no building is left standing.”
Landslides and Debris Have Made Many of the Access Roads Almost Impassable On The Already Rugged, Mountainous Terrain. “We can’t get Enough Supplies to Those Affected,” Says Sayed Rahman. To Reach Certain Places You Have To Cross Mountains and Rivers. “That Sometimes Means Walking for Three Hours.” Even Helicopters Can’t Reach Everywhere.
Therefore, in Some Cases, Victims have to come to the posts set up by aid organizations, just though that mean leading their hard-hit community Behind. “A Mother had to leave five of her children in the rubble, not knowing if they were still alive, in order to save her other four children.”
“We Hear Tragic Stories of Villages Where Sometimes Nine Or ten Family Members Have died, And One Child is Left,” Says a Red Cross Spokesperson. Sayed Rahman: “It is Already Terrible to Lose One Family Member. Let Alone That There Are So Many.”
Fear of New Tremors
The Fear of a New Earthquake also runs Deep Among the Victims. This is reinforced by the aftershocks that can be felt every twenty minutes. “People are traumatized and don’t dare to seek shelter, for fear of a New Earthquake that will also Cause Buildings to Collapse,” Says sayed Rahman.
That is why tents are needed, she says. “People are Sleeping Outside While It is Raining.” There is also a shortage of medical assistance, food and water. The Red Cross Reported on Wednesday That It Needs 26.5 Million Euros to Help the 150,000 people Affected for Two Years.
People are Being Rescued, But The Hospitals in Kabul, Jalalabad and Kunar Are Overburdened. “They Already Were Before the Earthquake,” Says Sayed Rahman. “People work shift after shift to save as many people as possible.”
Accordance to Her, The Overload is Partly Due to Decreased International Support for the Country. As a result, more than four hundred medical facilities have had to close their Doors. Cuts to us aid program Such as USAID by President Donald Trump’s Administration also Played a Role in this.
In Addition to the Conthequences of Natural Disasters, Afghanistan is struggling with a humanitarian and economic crisis. “The Systems that are normally in place to respond to a disaster like this cannot cope now,” Says sayed rahman. Because there is now even less less, it Becomes “All the more difficult for aid organizations to get families back on their feet.”
Fear That Death Toll Will Rise
It is not Yet Possible to Oversee the Total Damage. For the time being, Accordance to the Taliban, Who Hold Sway in Afghanistan, Fourteen Hundred People have died. It is Difficult to Say How High The Actual Death Toll is, because it is also Difficult for Rescue Workers to Enter The Area.
However, there is fear that the Death Toll Will rise, eSpeciate now that it is more than 72 hours after the first major earthquake. Accordance to Rahman, that is the “crucial period” in which you must be able to reach anjured people. Accordance to the Taliban, More Than Three Thousand People Have Been Injured So Far and Almost Seven Thousand Houses Have Been Destroyed.
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