‘Intergenerational’ crisis looms for Afghanistan’s quake survivors as aid runs thin
The quakes have left tens of thousands of people homeless, livestock killed and grain stores and irrigation systems destroyed
Earthquakes that flattened villages in eastern Afghanistan this month destroyed homes and livestock, the only assets owned by most families, leaving survivors with almost nothing to rebuild as aid runs thin.
At least 2,200 people were killed and more than half a million affected when a powerful earthquake struck the region on the night of August 31 followed by a series of strong aftershocks. The quakes have left tens of thousands of people homeless, with some fearing further landslides.
Abdul Ghafar, 52, has been living with his family of 10 under a tarpaulin sheet in Bamba Kot, a village in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, since the quakes struck. The walls of his stone house are cracked, ceilings have collapsed and rubble covers the floor, forcing the family to sleep outside.
“We only need one tent,” he said, adding that officials refused to register his damaged house as uninhabitable.
For many families in rural Afghanistan, homes, land and livestock are all they can call their own.