Earthquake

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A massive earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan overnight Wednesday, killing more than 1,000 and injuring more than 1,500, ...

“We don’t yet know the full extent of the devastation, but we believe hundreds of people have been killed, including many women and children. Persistent poverty and lingering drought have threatened millions of lives. “All aid agencies are urged to send their teams to the area immediately so that further catastrophe can be prevented.” The province of Paktika was hit hardest, with earlier estimates of 255 killed and 500 wounded, said Muhammad Nasim Haqqani, a disaster management spokesman. Many more have been injured and many homes damaged or destroyed. It has implemented ultraconservative social policies and restricted rights, even while seeking foreign aid.

More than 1600 others were injured in the 5.9-magnitude quake, which was centered in the country's remote southeast near the Pakistan border.

In January, two earthquakes struck a remote, mountainous area of western Afghanistan, killing at least 27 people and destroying hundreds of homes, officials said at the time. Paktika was one of the last areas to come under the control of the American-led coalition in 2001. In one area between Kabul and Jalalabad, it estimated that an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 would affect seven million people. For civilians in Afghanistan, earthquakes are yet another risk in a country traumatized by decades of war. Wednesday’s earthquake was felt in Kabul and across the northern part of neighboring Pakistan, according to a map that the European Mediterranean Seismological Center posted on its website. He said that helicopters had transported some of the wounded to hospitals in Kabul and neighboring provinces. It was the latest in a series of bloody terrorist attacks since April that have killed more than 100 people, predominantly civilians among the country’s Shiite and Sufi minorities. The sparsely populated province struck by a devastating earthquake early Wednesday lies on Afghanistan’s southeastern border with Pakistan. Some residents live in homes of earth and clay. Telecommunications are poor or nonexistent in remote parts of the affected region, making it hard to get a full accounting of the damage. In Khost Province, Shabir Ahmad Osmani, the director of information and culture, said that 40 people had died and more than 100 were injured. “Nearly all government and private hospitals are full of victims,” said Awal Khan Zadran, a doctor in Paktika’s Urgun district. But the worst damage was in the neighboring Paktika province, which lies along the border with Pakistan.

The European seismological agency said the earthquake's tremors were felt over 310 miles by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

"People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren," he said. The head of the Bakhtar news agency, Abdul Wahid Rayan, tweeted that at least 90 houses have been destroyed in Paktika and many people are believed trapped under the rubble. U.N. resident coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, tweeted that "teams are on grounds delivering first aid in affected areas in Paktika, Giyan and Barmal. More help is being mobilized." Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhand pledged $10 million to immediately aid families in Paktika and Khost provinces. The quake, centered 25 miles southwest of Khost, struck at about 1:24 a.m. local time, when many people were sleeping in their homes. Other images showed residents picking through clay bricks and other rubble from destroyed houses.

Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1000 ...

"People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need." "The situation is still evolving, and we are pushing more resources as the situation needs," he said. India expressed "sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families," according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday. But a WHO official told CNN's Eleni Giokos that logistics were stretched. The situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his condolences and an offer of support in a tweet on Wednesday. "Deeply grieved to learn about the earthquake in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives," he wrote. According to to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rain and wind is "hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land this afternoon." "Measures were also taken to provide cash assistance and treatment," Mujahid said and added that agencies were "instructed to use air and land transport for the delivery of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities and for the transportation of the wounded." A team of medics and seven helicopters have been sent to the area to transport injured people to nearby hospitals, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said in a tweet on Wednesday. "The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night ... and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties," he added. "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for the generous support of all countries international organizations individuals and foundations to provide and deliver urgent humanitarian aid," a press statement from the country's diplomatic missions read.

Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's eastern region, killing more ...

The Taliban-ruled country is currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises. “People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. "The people of Afghanistan have undergone extraordinary hardship, and this natural disaster compounds an already dire humanitarian situation," Blinken said in a statement. The situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need.” “The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night … and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties,” he added. The humanitarian disaster caused by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in eastern Afghanistan — the country's deadliest earthquake in decades — occurred at a challenging time for the Taliban-ruled country, which is currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises. Speaking at a news conference, the deputy minister said that "the Islamic Emirate will pay 100,000 AFN ($1,116.19) for the families of those who were killed in the earthquake and 50,000 ($558.10) will be paid to families of those injured." The spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, said he "grieves" over the deaths caused by the earthquake, according to a tweet from the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan. "Afg is a friendly neighbor of China, and China is willing to provide emergency humanitarian assistance according to Afg needs," the embassy tweeted. India expressed “sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families,” according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday. The US "expresses deep sorrow for the victims of today’s devastating earthquake in Afghanistan, and we offer our sympathy and prayers to those who lost loved ones in the tragedy," he said. The death toll from the earthquake in Afghanistan is still rising and may exceed 1,000, according to the World Health Organization, with more than 1,000 injured people being transferred to different hospitals in the region

The earthquake, which registered a 6.1 magnitude, was one of the deadliest in decades, officials said.

The earthquake, which registered a 6.1 magnitude, was one of the deadliest in decades, officials said. Many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the takeover, and reaching rural areas in the country can be difficult for rescuers in the best of circumstances. The earthquake, which registered a 6.1 magnitude, was one of the deadliest in decades, officials said.

The Taliban is seeking help from foreign-aid agencies in a country already reeling from humanitarian disaster.

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The people of Afghanistan have undergone extraordinary hardship, and this natural disaster compounds an already dire humanitarian situation. U.S. humanitarian ...

U.S. humanitarian partners are already responding, including by sending medical teams to help people affected, and we are assessing other response options. The people of Afghanistan have undergone extraordinary hardship, and this natural disaster compounds an already dire humanitarian situation.

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing · 1. A bipartisan gun safety bill cleared an initial Senate vote. · 2. Russian forces captured more ground around key cities in ...

The league started a second investigation into the Commanders earlier this year, in response to a new allegation of sexual harassment that directly implicates Snyder. And dozens of organizations called on President Biden to negotiate for the release of Brittney Griner, the W.N.B.A. star who has been detained in Russia since February. Elsewhere in New York, the M.T.A. said it would add elevators and ramps to 95 percent of subway stations by 2055 as part of a settlement agreement in lawsuits over accessibility issues. Mayor Eric Adams celebrated the order in a statement last week, but members of a jail oversight agency said the growing toll should compel the judge to reconsider and take action. The president also asked states to suspend their own gas taxes, and his administration has estimated that a combination of several possible steps will lower gas prices by at least $1 a gallon. The quake is the country’s deadliest in more than two decades. In the grief, a debate has surfaced: Who stops a ‘bad guy with a gun’? In the south, Ukraine’s offshore strikes suggest that its forces are beginning to use more powerful Western anti-ship weapons. The year’s total is now nine deaths, three more than at this time last year. Officials say at least another 1,600 people were injured in the quake. Significantly, the bill would also ensure that partners who are dating each other seriously are included in a federal law that bars domestic abusers from purchasing guns, a longtime priority that has eluded advocates. Ukrainian forces are digging in on high ground in Lysychansk for a pivotal battle.

Desperate search and rescue operations were underway in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday following an earthquake that killed more than 1000 people, ...

On Wednesday, the WHO said it had mobilized "all of the resources" from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. "Our teams do not have specific equipment to take people from under the rubble," Alakbarov said. The move has crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government. Photos from nearby Paktika province, a rural and mountainous region where most of the deaths have been reported, show houses reduced to rubble. At least 1,500 people have been reported injured -- but officials warn the toll is likely to rise as many families were sleeping in flimsy housing structures when the quake hit.

In this image taken from video from Bakhtar State News Agency, Taliban fighters secure a government helicopter to evacuate injured people in Gayan district, ...

We've got several mobile health and nutrition teams on the way to administer first aid to those who are injured." The Afghan Red Crescent society said on Twitter that it was dispatching aid to affected areas. Earthquakes in the region are caused by an ongoing massive collision, as the India tectonic plate pushes northward into the Eurasia plate. He said so far, it was unclear what happened to the men, women and children who had been sleeping in them. A later video showed men lying on gurneys amid the rubble. They cited the deputy state minister for natural disaster management, Mawlavi Sharfuddin Muslim. It was not possible to immediately confirm that number, because the earthquake hit remote areas.

Overnight, an earthquake shook a remote and impoverished province of southeast Afghanistan, burying families under their homes. Taliban officials say more than ...

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The 5.9-magnitude quake, in Afghanistan's remote southeast near the Pakistan border, injured more than 1600 people, officials said.

Afghans had been struggling to emerge from decades of conflict: the 20-year war between the United States and its allies against militants, the civil war of the 1990s, the Soviet occupation before that. The earthquake struck in the middle of the night, when almost everyone in the area was asleep at home. The Taliban have struggled to attract more foreign aid for public services from Western donors since announcing edicts barring girls from attending secondary schools and restricting women’s rights. Mohammad Almas, the head of aid and appeals at Qamar, a charity active in the area, said that because the earthquake hit at night, most people were inside sleeping. Many of the country’s assets overseas have been frozen and international support has collapsed. The location of the earthquake fault probably played a role as well. The Taliban have struggled to attract foreign aid from Western donors since announcing edicts barring girls from attending secondary schools and restricting women’s rights. During the day, people might be in offices or schools, which might be of higher quality construction than homes. That toll was expected to rise, reflecting the poverty of the region, where some residents live in homes of clay and straw, and the difficult terrain, far from many clinics or hospitals that could help the wounded. More than 1,000 people died and 1,600 others were injured, with the neighboring province of Paktika suffering the worst damage. Most attract little attention and cause few deaths, but the death toll in Afghanistan has surpassed 1,000 and is expected to rise as search-and-rescue operations continue. He said the U.N. lacked the equipment needed to rescue people trapped under rubble and that Turkey was best positioned to help with its search-and-rescue capability.

Unknown numbers were buried in the rubble of ruined, often mud-built homes by the magnitude 6.1 earthquake. The Taliban authorities have called for more ...

According to the UN, 93% of households in Afghanistan suffer food insecurity. "It's June and the weather shouldn't be like this. There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes. "My brother and his family died, and I just learned it after many hours. Health teams, medical supplies, food and emergency shelters were en route to the quake zone, UN officials said. My shoulder was dislocated, my head was hurt but I got out.

(CNN) Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more ...

"People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need." "The situation is still evolving, and we are pushing more resources as the situation needs," he said. India expressed "sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families," according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday. But a WHO official told CNN's Eleni Giokos that logistics were stretched. The situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his condolences and an offer of support in a tweet on Wednesday. "Deeply grieved to learn about the earthquake in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives," he wrote. According to to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rain and wind is "hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land this afternoon." "Measures were also taken to provide cash assistance and treatment," Mujahid said and added that agencies were "instructed to use air and land transport for the delivery of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities and for the transportation of the wounded." A team of medics and seven helicopters have been sent to the area to transport injured people to nearby hospitals, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said in a tweet on Wednesday. "The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night ... and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties," he added. "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for the generous support of all countries international organizations individuals and foundations to provide and deliver urgent humanitarian aid," a press statement from the country's diplomatic missions read.

Remote villages in eastern Afghanistan reduced to rubble by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 1000 people.

The earthquake killed some 1,000 people and injured more than 1,500, he said. Afghan authorities struggled on Thursday to reach a remote area hit by an earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people but poor communications and a lack of proper roads hampered their efforts, officials have said. Remote villages in eastern Afghanistan reduced to rubble by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people.

At least 1000 people killed by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in remote, landslide-prone regions of eastern Afghanistan.

At the Paktika regional hospital, badly injured patients were being turned away. The death toll reported as of Thursday was equal to that of a quake in 2002 in northern Afghanistan. Those are the deadliest since 1998, when an earthquake of 6.1 in magnitude and subsequent tremors in the remote northeast killed at least 4,500 people. The Taliban government has appealed for international aid. “The Paktika regional hospital still lacks very important resources,” Latifi said. “Despite the sanctions that have been imposed by the international community, the government has done whatever it can in its capacity and the Afghan Red Crescent has immediately dispatched emergency aid to the area, along with the Turkish Red Crescent and other agencies,” Balkhi said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter that eight trucks of food and other necessities from Pakistan arrived in Paktika. He also said on Thursday that two planes of humanitarian aid from Iran and another from Qatar had arrived in the country.

Organised rescue efforts are struggling to reach the site of an earthquake in Afghanistan that has killed more than 1,000 people, as survivors dig through ...

Iran has promised us help and their rescue teams are on their way coming to the area. Iran has promised us help and their rescue teams are on their way coming to the area. “We have sent dozens of people to rescue people from under the rubbles but it is not enough. However, officials from multiple UN agencies said the Taliban were allowing full access to the area. Rescue efforts have been complicated by the fact that many countries have suspended or cut back on aid to Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover last year. An estimated 1,500 other people were reported injured, the state-run news agency said.

Overwhelmed residents were digging with bare hands through what used to be their homes, while the Taliban was struggling to coordinate recovery efforts.

In many of the worst-hit districts, Taliban leaders were fanning out to survey damage, provide food and rally residents’ spirits — with mixed results. The shallow, 5.9-magnitude earthquake, which was so powerful it was felt hundreds of miles away in India and Iran, poses a challenge to both the Taliban government and the international community. In Paktika’s Giyan district, Yasin, a doctor and former provincial council member, said he slept in the rain without food or shelter. The United States is “working with partners to deploy medical teams to provide immediate care to people affected, send assessment teams, and to maintain stocks of shelter supplies and relief items in the area to support initial response efforts,” the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said on Twitter on Thursday, signaling that it would not be directly involved. “I just want to sleep,” she said weakly. In some of the hardest-hit villages, entire homes have been reduced to rubble. The Taliban government on Thursday issued fresh appeals for international aid and called on the Biden administration to release Afghan assets held in U.S. banks. When the shaking stopped, she began to dig. “It happened so fast I couldn’t save all my children,” she said. As of Thursday morning, the death toll stood at around 1,000, with more than 1,600 injured. It was still impossible to take full account of how many homes had collapsed, Haqqani added. Most houses in this region are built with mud bricks, which disintegrated in the quake.

Aid groups scrambled on Thursday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1000 people in an area ...

Sanctions have crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. This means "around 80% of organizations (who responded to OCHA's monitoring survey) are facing delays in transferring funds, with two thirds reporting that their international banks continue to deny transfers. The government has so far distributed food, tents, clothing, and other supplies to the quake-hit provinces, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense's official Twitter account. Already yesterday we'd had a lot of rain here and the combination of the rain and the earthquake has lead to landslides in some areas, making roads difficult to pass by," UNICEF Afghanistan's Chief of Communications Sam Mort told CNN from Kabul. Pictures from the badly hit Paktika province, where most of the deaths have been reported, show homes reduced to dust and rubble. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized "all of the resources" from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government. "There will be months and potentially years of building back," she said. Teams deployed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have yet to arrive, according to Anita Dullard, ICRC's Asia Pacific spokesperson. The United Nations says 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed. The slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, concerns people working in the humanitarian space, like Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer in Transitional Justice at the American University of Afghanistan. "This is a very patchwork, band-aid solution for a problem that we need to start thinking (about) mid to long term... what do we do when (another disaster) hits?"

Villagers rushed to bury the dead and dug by hand through the rubble of their homes in search of survivors of a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.

Associated Press journalists counted some 50 bodies in the area alone, as people laid out their dead in front of their houses and in their courtyards. Biden on Wednesday ordered the U.S. international aid agency and its partners to “assess” options for helping the victims, a White House statement said. Though just 175 kilometers (110 miles) directly south of the capital, Kabul, some villages in Gayan District took a full day’s drive to reach. In hard-hit Gayan District, much of the rubble was too large for people to move with their hands or shovels. The Taliban’s takeover led to a cutoff of vital international financing, and most governments remain wary of dealing directly with them. GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Villagers rushed to bury the dead Thursday and dug by hand through the rubble of their homes in search of survivors of a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that state media reported killed 1,000 people. In Khost province’s Speray district, which also sustained serious damage, men stood atop what once was a mud home. Either grim till would make the quake Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, and officials continued to warn the number could still rise. In one courtyard, bodies lay wrapped in plastic to protect them from the rains that are hampering relief efforts for the living. For now, there was only one bulldozer in the area. In addition to the political and financial concerns, there were also logistical challenges to getting aid to remote villages. The state-run Bakhtar News Agency reported the death toll and said an estimated 1,500 more were injured.