Earthquake kills one in Kunduz province

At least one person is dead and 12 injured after an earthquake jolted Afghanistan’s northern province of Kunduz early on Saturday, officials say. “The tremor happened at 4:40 am, which killed an elderly woman and injured 12 other residents of Kowtar Mah village in Imam Sahib district,” Abdur Rahim Zarin, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul. “The wounded, which also include children, were rushed to the main hospital in Kunduz city,” Zarin said. The quake destroyed or partially damaged at least 50 houses, affecting more than 180 families, said local authorities According to Pakistan’s Seismic Centre, the quake measured 5.2 on the Richter scale and was centred inside Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan's Kunduz province. Residents of Imam Sahib district complained that they had not received humanitarian aid. “Many of our villagers are in very bad conditions and did not receive any assistance from the government and other aid agencies yet,” Said Zameen, 46, a resident of Kowtar Mah, said. Mohammad Fareed, head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) in Kunduz, said help was on its way. “Our team has completed its assessment in the area and we will soon begin aid delivery to all quake-affected families.” The last major quake to strike Afghanistan alone was in March 2002 in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. It killed nearly 2,000 people. Afghanistan also felt the quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale that hit northern India and Pakistan on 8 October 2005 killing more than 75,000 people and leaving more than 3.5 million homeless. SM/GS/DS