The death toll from the earthquake in Afghanistan now stands at 1,150. Some international aid is getting to impacted villages to provide people with food and tents, but villagers are mostly on their own with millions in the nation already in deep poverty.
The Taliban director of the state-run Bakhtar News Agency said Friday the death toll had risen to 1,150 people from previous reports of 1,000 killed. Abdul Wahid Rayan said at least 1,600 people were injured.
In the district of Gayan, at least 1,000 homes were damaged by the earthquake. Another 800 homes in the Spera district of Khost province were also damaged. While modern buildings withstand magnitude 6 earthquakes elsewhere, Afghanistan’s mud-brick homes and landslide-prone mountains make such quakes more dangerous.
Many international aid agencies withdrew from Afghanistan when the Taliban seized power last August. Those that remain are scrambling to get medical supplies, food and tents to the remote quake-struck area, using shoddy mountain roads made worse by damage and rains. U.N. agencies are alsoGermany, Norway and several other countries announced they were sending aid for the quake, but underscored that they would work only through U.N.