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Devastating Earthquake Strikes Afghanistan As Taliban Struggles To Respond

A man collects his belongings from the rubble of his home, which was destroyed in an earthquake that struck part of Khost Province, Afghanistan, on June 22, 2022.

Hundreds were killed in an earthquake in the southeastern region of Afghanistan early Wednesday, adding to the country’s already-grave economic and humanitarian crisis. Search and rescue operations are underway.

The 5.9-magnitude earthquake caused the most damage in the mountainous areas of Khost and Paktika provinces, which are located in Afghanistan’s southeast and border Pakistan.

Afghan media showed images of collapsed buildings and victims wrapped in blankets on the ground in the hours following the quake. Accurate information from the remote mountain villages affected by the quake has been limited.

Around 770 people are estimated to have been killed, at least 1,455 people have been injured, and nearly 1,500 homes have now been verified as destroyed and damaged, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. The Taliban has estimated the death toll at more than 1,000 people.

On Wednesday evening, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that 90% of earthquake-related search and rescue operations had been finalized. However, additional assessments are taking place Thursday to verify this, and casualties may rise further, OCHA reported.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada — who almost never appears in public — pleaded with the international community and humanitarian organizations “to help the Afghan people affected by this great tragedy and to spare no effort.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the global agency had “fully mobilized” to help, with the U.N. confirming that it had deployed health teams and supplies of medicine, food, trauma kits and emergency shelter to the quake zone.

A man collects his belongings from the rubble of his home, which was destroyed in an earthquake that struck part of Khost Province, Afghanistan, on June 22, 2022.

President Joe Biden is monitoring the developments in Afghanistan and has directed the U.S. Agency for International Development and other federal government partners to evaluate how to help those most affected, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Thursday.

But until that happens, international aid is limited, given the severe sanctions placed on the Taliban government last year after the U.S.-backed Afghan government fell.

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday that the Turkish Red Crescent, which operates in Afghanistan, had sent humanitarian aid for the…

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