Last Thursday, Afghan citizens were desperate for aid after an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 struck villages and districts across southeastern Afghanistan. Most civilian houses were made of straw and clay, making it unstable even during moderate earthquakes.
The earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday morning measured a magnitude 5.9, making it moderately strong. Every year, about 1,300 quakes of similar strength occur around the world on average. Most attract little attention and cause few deaths, but the death toll in Afghanistan has surpassed 1,000 and is expected to rise.
Scattered across the region are small villages of mud-brick homes that rise out of the dull clay and are accessible only by dirt roads weaving through jagged mountains specked with shrubs. Small squares of farmland are wedged in the valleys between mountains.
The earthquake struck in the middle of the night, when almost everyone in the area was asleep at home. When people are awake, they have more time to try to reach a safe area. During the day, people might be in offices or schools, which might be of higher quality construction than homes. In the center of the village, aid organizations and workers with the Taliban government’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development set up a makeshift aid distribution site. As dusk settled, crowds of men helped offload bags of flour, rice and blankets from the backs of dust-covered trucks into bright blue tents, readying the items for distribution.
Major questions remain about whether the Taliban government, which stormed to power last year after a long period of war and was cut off from Western donors by sanctions, will be able to coordinate the massive and sustained humanitarian effort needed to help the impoverished area, where many have been left homeless.
American humanitarian aid to Afghanistan has continued throughout, with the United States sending more than one billion dollars directly to humanitarian programs within the country over the past year. But many human rights advocates say that America must work with the Taliban government and provide it with economic assistance to alleviate human suffering on a wide and lasting basis.
“I lost everything, my whole world, my whole family, I don’t have any hope for the future,” she said. “I wish I had lost everything, that we had all died, because there’s no one to take care of us, to find money or food for us now.”
The earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday morning measured a magnitude 5.9, making it moderately strong. Every year, about 1,300 quakes of similar strength occur around the world on average. Most attract little attention and cause few deaths, but the death toll in Afghanistan has surpassed 1,000 and is expected to rise.
Scattered across the region are small villages of mud-brick homes that rise out of the dull clay and are accessible only by dirt roads weaving through jagged mountains specked with shrubs. Small squares of farmland are wedged in the valleys between mountains.
The earthquake struck in the middle of the night, when almost everyone in the area was asleep at home. When people are awake, they have more time to try to reach a safe area. During the day, people might be in offices or schools, which might be of higher quality construction than homes. In the center of the village, aid organizations and workers with the Taliban government’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development set up a makeshift aid distribution site. As dusk settled, crowds of men helped offload bags of flour, rice and blankets from the backs of dust-covered trucks into bright blue tents, readying the items for distribution.
Major questions remain about whether the Taliban government, which stormed to power last year after a long period of war and was cut off from Western donors by sanctions, will be able to coordinate the massive and sustained humanitarian effort needed to help the impoverished area, where many have been left homeless.
American humanitarian aid to Afghanistan has continued throughout, with the United States sending more than one billion dollars directly to humanitarian programs within the country over the past year. But many human rights advocates say that America must work with the Taliban government and provide it with economic assistance to alleviate human suffering on a wide and lasting basis.
“I lost everything, my whole world, my whole family, I don’t have any hope for the future,” she said. “I wish I had lost everything, that we had all died, because there’s no one to take care of us, to find money or food for us now.”
