Gayan, Paktika – In the early hours of Wednesday morning, June 22, mud houses in this remote part of southeastern Afghanistan began to shake and collapse under the force of a 5.9-magnitude earthquake of magnitude.
Panicked residents tried to wake their sleeping relatives. But for hundreds of families, there was no time.
Within minutes, the mud roofs of houses in Gayan district, where poor families of up to 15 people lived together, crashed into those still inside.
In the hours that passed after those first terrifying tremors, the death toll rose.
When residents in the Afghan capital, Kabul, woke up to the news of the earthquake in the remote eastern regions of the country, the death toll had already reached 90. It would exceed 1,000 deaths, including at least 121 children, by in the evening.
Three days later, the death toll has exceeded 1,100 and there are hundreds injured.
“Every house here has lost several people; everyone’s houses are destroyed. Everything we had now is gone, “Ali Khan said, recounting how 10 relatives died in the quake, including children.
Having grown up in Gayan, the 35-year-old said the economic conditions of the local villagers were a factor in the scale of the destruction and the number of deaths.
Nestled in mountains and rocky, unpaved slopes, the remoteness of these poor villages and their rudimentary mud and wooden houses was cited as one of the leading causes of fatalities among residents of Khost and Paktika, the two most remote provinces. affected by the earthquake.
“Everyone here is poor, they build simple houses with what they have,” Khan said, as he examined the cracked walls of his family’s mud house on top of a dry, dusty hill in this remote region of the country.
“You don’t know who to help first”
The Afghan Defense Ministry began deploying helicopters to the affected districts on Wednesday morning, but by mid-afternoon these flights had to be halted due to torrential rain, hail and very cloudy conditions over Kabul and neighboring provinces.
Health workers in Paktia Province, home to the regional hospital in southeastern Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera that delayed helicopter flights greatly affected the ability of aid workers and medical professionals to help. the most needy.
When helicopter flights resumed, the demand was overwhelming.
A pilot who was flying between Paktika and neighboring Paktia province said he could not believe what he saw every time his helicopter landed in one of the affected areas.
“You don’t know who to help first, it’s just a race of people desperately trying to get on board,” he said, restarting the engine of his helicopter for another flight.
Samira Sayed Rahman, communications and defense coordinator for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), said her organization had deployed mobile medical units in Khost and Paktika, but the need remained great.
The IRC was fortunate to have teams in both provinces and Kabul who were familiar with the communities and geography of the affected areas, Sayed Rahman said.
“Our mobile medical team in Spera (district) reported that most of the deaths and victims they treat in the district are from women.”
Haji Mirwais has been on the ground since Wednesday, leading an assessment team and working with several local NGOs to offer help to earthquake survivors.
When Mirwais initially arrived in Gayan district, he was surprised by what he saw. Nothing, he said, could have prepared him for the level of destruction he witnessed.
“We counted 1,700 homes that needed a total reconstruction. There were no houses anywhere, they were just pieces of mud and wood splattered everywhere, ”he told Al Jazeera by telephone.
“Paktika is in a terrible state,” Mirwais said, adding that help has come from international organizations, businesses, local NGOs and private donors, but it was still not enough to address the level of need.
Local sources told Al Jazeera that at least four of the 19 districts of Paktika were severely damaged. According to the United Nations, at least 200 people died in Gayan.
A Taliban helicopter takes off after bringing aid to an area affected by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23, 2022 [Ali Khara/Reuters] (Reuters)
“I feel this pain, even here in Europe”
Domestic and foreign Afghans have launched their own relief campaigns to help earthquake victims.
“Wherever on the map, if people in Afghanistan suffer, I feel this pain, even here in Europe,” said Shafi Karimi, a French-based Afghan journalist who has launched an online fundraising campaign. hoping to raise 10,000 euros. to help victims.
“We may be far away now, but we can’t forget our people,” Karimi said, explaining that he wanted his fundraising effort to serve as a model for Afghans abroad whether they left the country last year. past, since the Taliban took it again. power, or decades ago.
“I know it’s not much, but maybe I can help a family rebuild one of their rooms or at least put some food on their table,” he said.
Pashtana Durrani, an education rights advocate currently studying in the United States, said she had initially “sworn in” humanitarian work, but said reports of devastation from the hardest-hit areas had prompted her to start. fundraising efforts and partnering with local grassroots groups and NGOs in Afghanistan. She hopes her help effort will reach the most needy.
“There are people who do their best to serve the people affected instead of classifying them according to the ethnicity or side they fought for,” Durrani said.
“The least I can do is offer a little help so they don’t have to worry about where they sleep or what they eat.”
Continued sanctions and restrictions on banking in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power are further complicating the fundraising efforts of both Durrani and Karimi.
They both want to focus on raising as much money as possible and getting it directly to people who need it without having to deal with the limitations imposed on banking in Afghanistan.
Durrani said he wanted to use an app to send money, but that the fees would be too high. Karimi said even previously reliable services like Western Union and MoneyGram are proving too complicated as a result of global restrictions on banking after the Taliban returned to power last August.
“Today it is very difficult to bring money into the country, but we will find a way to do it. We have to do this for people when they need us most, ”he said.
Durrani and Karimi are not alone in their fundraising efforts. Afghans everywhere have begun to help, including Rashid Khan, the star cricketer in Afghanistan, who has started an online collection, promising that every penny collected will go directly to the victims of the earthquake.