More than 900 people killed after magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits eastern Afghanistan

Many of the deaths had been in Paktika province, within the districts of Giyan, Nika, Barmal and Zirok, based on the ministry.

In neighboring Khost province, 25 individuals had been killed and several other others had been injured, and 5 individuals had been killed in Nangarhar province, the catastrophe administration authority mentioned.

Pictures from Paktika province, simply south of Khost province, present homes turned to rubble with solely a wall or two nonetheless standing amid the rubble, and damaged roof beams.

Najibullah Sadid, an Afghan water sources administration skilled, mentioned the earthquake had coincided with heavy monsoon rain within the area — making conventional homes, many fabricated from mud and different pure supplies, significantly susceptible to wreck.

“The timing of the earthquake (within the) darkish of night time … and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to larger casualties,” he added.

A workforce of medics and 7 helicopters have been despatched to the realm to move injured individuals to close by hospitals, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Protection mentioned in a tweet on Wednesday.

The Taliban held an emergency assembly to prepare offering transportation to the injured and materials help to the victims and their households, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid mentioned.

Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund referred to as the assembly on the nation’s Presidential Palace to instruct all related companies to ship emergency reduction groups to the affected space, Mujahid mentioned in a tweet.

“Measures had been additionally taken to supply money help and remedy,” Mujahid mentioned and added that companies had been “instructed to make use of air and land transport for the supply of meals, clothes, drugs and different requirements and for the transportation of the wounded.”

In a tweet on Wednesday, the World Well being Group mentioned its groups had been on the bottom for emergency response, together with offering drugs, trauma providers and conducting wants assessments.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif prolonged his condolences and a suggestion of assist in a tweet on Wednesday. “Deeply grieved to study in regards to the earthquake in Afghanistan, ensuing within the lack of harmless lives,” he wrote. “Folks in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Related authorities are working to assist Afghanistan on this time of want.”

India expressed “sympathy and condolences to the victims and their households,” based on a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of Exterior Affairs on Wednesday.

Pope Francis mentioned he was praying “for individuals who have misplaced their lives and for his or her households,” throughout his weekly viewers on Wednesday. “I hope help may be despatched there to assist all of the struggling of the pricey individuals of Afghanistan.”

The earthquake comes because the nation is within the throes of a starvation disaster. Nearly half the inhabitants — 20 million individuals — are experiencing acute starvation, based on a United Nations-backed report in Might. It’s a state of affairs compounded by the Taliban seizing energy in August 2021, which led the US and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the nation’s overseas reserves and slicing off worldwide funding.

The transfer crippled an economic system already closely depending on help.