INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Authorities in Afghanistan have ended the search for survivors of an earthquake that struck on Wednesday, a senior official said on Friday,
adding that supplies of medicine and other critical aid were inadequate.Some 2,000 people were injured and 10,000 houses were partially or
Survivors have been pulled from the rubble of other earthquakes after considerably more time.The Taliban director of the state-run Bakhtar
News Agency said Friday the death toll from the quake had risen to 1,150 people
Abdul Wahid Rayan also said at least 1,600 people were injured.The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has
communicating with the impacted villages
decades of war.Poor communications and a lack of proper roads have hampered relief efforts in a country already grappling with a
humanitarian crisis that has deteriorated since the Taliban took over last August.Haqqani said Afghanistan did not have enough critical
Our entire water distribution system is destroyed
province.Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, head of information for the province, said heavy rain and floods were hampering efforts to reach those
affected.The earthquake struck areas already suffering the effects of heavy rain, causing rockfalls and mudslides that wiped out hamlets
perched precariously on mountain slopes.The quake also toppled mobile phone towers and power lines.The rescue operation was seen as a major
test for the hardline Islamist Taliban, who took over as US-led international forces withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.The
country has since been largely isolated, cut off from much direct international assistance due to sanctions.Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and
the United Arab Emirates all said on Thursday they plan to send aid
Supplies from neighbour Pakistan have already crossed the border.India, which has a strained relationship with the Taliban, said it had sent
27 tonnes of supplies on two flights to be handed over to international aid agencies.Large parts of South Asia are seismically active
because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.An earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast
in 2015, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan
A 6.1 magnitude quake killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan in 2002
And a 6.1 magnitude quake and subsequent tremors in northeast Afghanistan killed at least 4,500 people in 1998.Source: FRANCE 24 with AP,
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://adaderana.lk
