After the earthquake, survival depends on humanitarian aid

First modification: 06/28/2022 – 12:18

With Sonia Ghezali, RFI Special Envoy to Paktika Province

In the town of Marbek, all the houses were badly damaged by the earthquake. On a rocky promontory, Miagul stretches out his arm toward the cliff opposite. “That’s my house up there, it’s completely destroyed. Now we live here, without shelter, in the open,” he tells RFI.

He has placed a green tarp on stakes on a rocky promontory. She now lives there with her grieving family: “My wife was injured and my daughter died. She was special to me…she was five years old…she danced all the time.”

The family survives only thanks to donations from local and international NGOs, since they have nothing left. Further on, in the village of Bariam Kheil, everything is desolate there too. Khunabas Khan is perched on the rubble of his house, his heart heavy. His family lived solely on cattle. The 80 animals of him, almost all buried under the rubble.

“Even before the earthquake, we were not in a good financial situation,” says the farmer. But now it is worse. We have lost everything. If this humanitarian aid had not arrived, more people would have died, because we had nothing to eat or drink. “.

“We don’t have the means to rebuild our house,” says Khunabas Khan, who lives with about 20 members of his family in a tent donated by a local NGO.

Before the earthquake, Afghanistan was already in the throes of a deep economic and humanitarian crisis, as the international community had completely closed the floodgates on financial aid.

In the past, humanitarian organizations accused the Taliban of diverting aid to areas where the population supported their insurrection against the pro-Western government.

The Taliban pledged Saturday not to hamper international efforts to help the tens of thousands of people affected by Wednesday’s earthquake.