Relief efforts for quake-hit villages continue

Efforts to provide relief to those affected by a moderate earthquake in the northeastern province of Takhar last week continued on Monday, with aid agencies struggling to access two remote villages. "Due to problems of access and communications, we don't have exact details of how many homes were destroyed," David Singh, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "By Wednesday or Thursday, we will be able to do an assessment of the damages and needs." The UN said Thursday night's quake, which measured 4.6 on the Richter scale, had ripped through the remote villages of Yaka Baghi and Sag Baghi, located in Afghanistan's northeastern Hindu Kush region. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, but affected families were said to be in urgent need of food and non-food assistance. According to the UN, assistance had been made available, but getting it to where it was needed most remained a key challenge. Some 200 tents had arrived in the area on Sunday, with more assistance on its way, Singh said. Manoel de Almeida e Silva, another spokesman for UNAMA, told IRIN on Sunday in Kabul that Afghan authorities and humanitarian organisations had begun an emergency relief operation on Friday to assist over 200 vulnerable families affected by the quake. "The aid is on its way, it is a very, very difficult place to access," the spokesman said, noting that the operation required a helicopter to get aid workers in and out of the locations, as well as to take more relief if necessary. In addition to tents from UNAMA and the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, 1,000 blankets [supplied] by Relief International and Mercy Corps were among other provisions, he said, adding that the World Food Programme (WFP) was providing the affected families with food rations sufficient to last one month, and a truck to transport the materials. The two affected villages were already hit by heavy rains in mid-March, which caused floods and landslides as well as movement of landmines in the vicinity of the villages. "Halo Trust [a UK-based mine clearance agency] has been asked to clear the area of mines so that access can be provided for people to have safe sites to pitch their tents," De Almeida e Silva said. Earthquakes are relatively frequent in the Hindu Kush mountain range. In March 2002, at least 100 people died and 15 were injured in a northern village after a powerful earthquake triggered a landslide. Another tremor of similar strength struck northern Afghanistan on January 2003, but caused no significant damage. In 1998, two earthquakes killed about 8,500 people and destroyed tens of thousands of houses in Takhar and Badakhshan provinces. On Friday, prior to the UN report, state run-run Kabul Radio reported that the quake-hit families in the two villages were in poor condition. It quoted a local source as saying the villagers lacked shelter and needed urgent assistance from the government and international organisations working in Afghanistan.