Officials in Afghanistan have said that at least 2,000
people are feared dead after a mountainside collapsed causing a massive
landslide in a remote region of the country.Seven people were pulled alive from
the mud and debris that flattened 300 homes but rescuers were pessimistic about
anyone else being alive beneath the piles of earth.
Many victims were villagers who dashed to help their
neighbours when a landslide struck but were then caught in a second wave of
mud. It was reported that a wedding was taking place in the village.“Now we can only help the displaced people. Those trapped
under the landslide and who have lost lives, it is impossible to do anything
for them,” said Major General Faziluddin Hayar, the Badakhshan provincial
police chief.
Those who were caught by the catastrophic landslip were from
the village of Hobo Barik, about a third of which was wiped out, and most would
have been at home rather than at work because it was a day of worship.Up to 600 people from nearby villages made their way to Hobo
Barik, in the north east of the country, to try to help the rescue operation
but were severely hampered by a lack of shovels and machinery. The mud covering
the devastated village was said to be several metres thick.
The landslide is believed to have been triggered by heavy
rain which has swept the region for several days. Landslide and avalanches are
common in the province but are rarely so deadly.Ari Gaitanis, of the United
Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said 350 people had been confirmed
dead and that the UN is trying to help the rescue operation.
Shah Waliullah Adeeb, the regional governor, said more than
2,000 people had yet to be accounted for and he issued a plea for equipment:
“It’s physically impossible right now. We don’t have enough shovels; we need
more machinery.”
Mohammad Zakria Sauda, a local MP, said the casualties
included many children, and he estimated the likely death toll at 1,000 people.
“At first a small part of the hill came down, and then when people went to help
the other big part came down,” he said. “Casualties could be as many as 1,000
people. Children, women are stuck under the soil.”
Badakhshan province, in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain
ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country Badakhshan
province, in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is
one of the most remote in the country
President Barack Obama, speaking at a White House news
conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expressed his sympathy for the
Afghan people.
“Just as the United States has stood with the people of
Afghanistan through a difficult decade, we stand ready to help our Afghan
partners as they respond to this disaster, for even as our war there comes to
an end this year, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people will endure,” he
said.
Badakhshan province, in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain
ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country.
A landslide in Baghlan province, also in northeastern
Afghanistan, killed 71 people in 2012. After days of digging unearthed only
five bodies, authorities decided to halt the recovery effort and turn the area
into a memorial for the dead. In February 2010 more than 170 people were killed
by an avalanche at the 12,700-foot-high (3,800-meter) Salang Pass, which is the
major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the
north.
No comments:
Post a Comment