Afghanistan seeks emergency medical supplies for earthquake survivors

KABUL – Afghanistan does not have enough medical supplies to treat the injured from an earthquake that killed 1,000 people, a senior official said on Friday, as authorities ended the search for survivors in remote southeastern mountains.

About 2,000 people were injured and 10,000 houses were partially or completely destroyed in the early Wednesday earthquake, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, a spokesperson for the disaster ministry, told Reuters.

“The health ministry does not have enough drugs, we need medical aid and other necessities because it’s a big disaster,” he said.

The 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck about 100 miles southeast of Kabul near the Pakistani border, in a region of arid mountains dotted with small settlements that has been often contested over Afghanistan’s decades of war.

Poor communications and a lack of proper roads have hampered relief efforts in a country grappling with a humanitarian crisis that deteriorated sharply after the Taliban took over last August as U.S.-led international forces withdrew.

The disaster is a major test for the hardline Islamists, who have been largely isolated; shunned by many because of worries about human rights, and cut off from much direct international assistance because of sanctions.

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates all said on Thursday they planned to send aid. Supplies from Pakistan have already crossed the border.

India, which has a strained relationship with the Taliban, said it had sent 27 tonnes of supplies on two flights to be handed over to international aid agencies.

Haqqani said the search for survivors had been called off, some 48 hours after the disaster struck.

“The search operation has finished,” he said.

He did not elaborate on why. People have been pulled alive from the rubble of other earthquakes after considerably more time.

Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.

In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.