فرانس بريس وكالات
Rescuers struggled Thursday to help victims of an earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people in southeastern Afghanistan, but a lack of resources, mountainous terrain and torrential rain hampered their work.
The earthquake, which measured 5.9 on the Richter scale, occurred early Wednesday morning in this poor and hard-to-reach rural area on the border with Pakistan.
This new tragedy in Afghanistan, which is suffering mainly from an economic and humanitarian crisis, constitutes a major challenge to the Taliban movement, which has been in power in the country since mid-August. The earthquake that killed the largest number of people in Afghanistan in more than two decades.
At least 1,000 people died and 1,500 others were injured in Paktika alone, the worst-affected state, according to the authorities, who fear the death toll will rise; Because a large number are still stuck under the rubble of their collapsed homes.
"It is very difficult to get information from the ground because of the bad (telephone) network," the head of media and culture in Paktika state told AFP on Thursday.
Sharan City Hospital received the injured
He added that "it is difficult to reach the affected sites", especially since "the area witnessed floods last night caused by heavy rains," stressing that there is no new assessment yet.
Heavy rains caused a number of landslides, which slowed relief efforts and damaged telephone and electricity lines.
The Taliban government called up the army, but it has little means. Its financial resources are very limited after billions of dollars of assets held abroad were frozen and Western international aid on which the country relied twenty years ago was suspended and today has been provided by train since the Islamists returned to power.
AFP