GENEVA: The UN on Tuesday said the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that has killed more than 1400 people could impact “hundreds of thousands”, and warned of an “exponential” rise in casualties.
“We think potentially the impacted individuals would go up to almost into the hundreds of thousands,” Indrika Ratwatte, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Kabul.
Already, more than 1411 people are known to have been killed and over 300 injured in the 6.0-magnitude earthquake, which hit remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan around midnight on Sunday, followed by at least five aftershocks.
“The numbers are definitely going to increase,” Ratwatte said, adding there was “no question that the casualty rate is going to be rather exponential”.
The earthquake’s epicentre was about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from the city of Jalalabad, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which said it struck around eight kilometres below the Earth’s surface.
Such relatively shallow earthquakes can cause more damage, especially since the majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes vulnerable to collapse.
Ratwatte said homes in the affected region were largely “mud and wooden roof structures, so when the walls collapse the roof is what basically for the individuals kills them or suffocates them”.
“It’s a low (population) density, but since this happened in the night, everybody was sleeping so I think (the casualty figure) is going to be much higher.”
He added that the quake had set off “lots of landslides, rockfalls, etc., and access has been very limited. This has posed a huge challenge”.
“The biggest challenge is to reach these remote areas with the road access extremely damaged,” he said, stressing the need for helicopters to reach those in need, evacuate the injured and deploy search and rescue and medical teams.
Ratwatte urged countries to show solidarity with the people of Afghanistan “facing multiple crises, multiple shocks”.
He lamented that an appeal for $2.4 billion to provide desperately needed aid to Afghans this year was so far only 28-percent funded.
Pakistan assures full support
On Monday, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar offered Islamabad’s full support to Afghanistan in the wake of a powerful earthquake.
Deputy Prime Minister Dar called Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and expressed Pakistan’s readiness to provide all possible support in response to the deadly earthquake.
According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office, Deputy PM Dar conveyed condolences on the tragic loss of lives, with thousands injured in last night’s earthquake in Afghanistan.
Dar offered prayers for the victims and bereaved families, reaffirmed Pakistan’s solidarity with the Afghan people, and assured readiness to extend all possible support as required by the Afghan side.
EU sending aid
The European Union said on Tuesday it was sending 130 tonnes of emergency supplies and unlocking one million euros to help quake victims in Afghanistan.
The EU said that it was flying in the aid — including tents, clothes and medical items — on two special flights scheduled to arrive in Kabul this week.
The new aid comes on top of some 160 million euros ($185 million) in aid the EU has allocated to humanitarian organisations in Afghanistan this year.
