An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 shook southeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, sparking fears of further damage and destruction almost two days after a large quake in the same region killed more than 1,400 people and injured thousands more.
Tuesday’s quake occurred at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles), the same level as the one that struck at midnight on Sunday with a magnitude of 6. That was one of Afghanistan’s worst quakes in years, flattening houses in remote villages.
The aftershock caused panic and halted rescue efforts as it sent rocks sliding down mountains, cutting off roads further and making it dangerous to dig through rubble, said Safiullah Noorzai, who works with Aseel, a humanitarian tech platform with networks around Afghanistan.
Noorzai, whose organisation has sent teams to the mountainous region, said more people had been injured, likely pushing the death toll higher.
According to a report by United Nations, communication and connectivity issues are major challenges being faced by humanitarian aid workers.
Meanwhile, members of the Hindu and Sikh communities from Afghanistan have pooled in their resources to send relief material for the earthquake-affected victims in the eastern provinces of the country, added reports.
At least 1,411 people are known to have died so far, 3,124 have been injured, and more than 5,400 houses destroyed, Taliban administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.
The U.N. coordinator in Afghanistan said the death toll was sure to rise further.
Aid group Save the Children called on the international community to release emergency funds urgently. The earthquake has disrupted sources of clean water, raising fears of disease, and restricted access to food, it said.
“This is now a race against time to save lives – to get injured people out of remote villages cut off by massive rock falls and to get clean water, food, and shelter in,” said Samira Sayed Rahman, Programmes and Advocacy Director at Save the Children.
India, on its part, has already dispatched humanitarian aid, including 1,000 tents and 15 tons of food supplies. New Delhi has assured Kabul that it will continue to assist in the form of medicines and food supplies.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
The eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar were the worst-hit areas in Sunday night’s earthquake.
On Tuesday, a line of ambulances was on the damaged mountain road attempting to reach Kunar villages, as helicopters flew in, bringing aid supplies and taking the injured to hospitals, according to a Reuters reporter.
Thousands of children were at risk, the United Nations Children’s Fund warned on Tuesday.
UNICEF said it was sending medicines, warm clothing, tents and tarpaulins for shelter, and hygiene items such as soap, detergent, towels, sanitary pads, and water buckets.
Taliban soldiers were deployed in the area, providing help and security. The disaster has further stretched the war-torn nation’s Taliban administration, already grappling with a sharp drop in foreign aid and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighbouring countries.
“Damaged roads, ongoing aftershocks, and remote locations of many villages severely impede the delivery of aid,” the World Health Organisation said, adding that over 12,000 people had been affected by the quake.
“The pre-earthquake fragility of the health system means local capacity is overwhelmed, creating total dependence on external actors,” it said.
Food and tents were desperately needed, said Aseel’s Noorzai. With their houses in ruins, many people were living in the open amid a fear of aftershocks, Noorzai added.
(With inputs from agencies)