SHARAN, Afghanistan (Dispatches) – Many survivors of Afghanistan’s deadliest earthquake in more than two decades were on Friday without food, shelter and water as they waited in devastated villages for relief workers to reach them, with rain compounding their misery.
Wednesday’s 5.9-magnitude quake struck hardest in the rugged east along with border with Pakistan, killing more than 1,000 and leaving thousands homeless.
Entire villages have been leveled in some of the worst affected districts, where survivors said they were even struggling to find equipment to bury their dead.
“There are no blankets, tents, there’s no shelter. Our entire water distribution system is destroyed. There is literally nothing to eat,” 21-year-old Zaitullah Ghurziwal told an AFP team that reached his village in hard-hit Paktika province.
Muhammad Amin Huzaifa, head of information for the province, said heavy rain and floods were hampering efforts to reach those affected.
Communications have also been hit as the quake toppled mobile phone towers and power lines.

The earthquake struck areas already suffering the effects of heavy rain, causing rockfalls and mudslides that wiped out hamlets perched precariously on mountain slopes.
Officials say nearly 10,000 houses were destroyed, an alarming number in an area where the average household size is more than 20 people.
“Seven in one room, five in the other room, four in another, and three in another have been killed in my family,” Bibi Hawa told AFP from a hospital bed in the Paktika capital Sharan.
Save the Children said more than 118,000 children were impacted by the disaster.
“Many children are now most likely without clean drinking water, food and a safe place to sleep,” the international charity said.
The disaster poses a huge logistical challenge for the Taliban government.
The aid-dependent country saw the bulk of its foreign assistance cut off following the Taliban takeover last August, and even before Wednesday’s disaster the United Nations warned of a humanitarian crisis that threatened the entire population.
But the quake has prompted an outpouring of sympathy from abroad -- although many are wary how any aid will be used.
Afghan government officials said Thursday that aid flights had landed from Qatar and Iran, while Pakistan had sent trucks carrying tents, medical supplies and food across the border.
On Thursday, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi urged the U.S. to release Afghanistan’s assets.
“As we have repeatedly stated, Afghanistan’s frozen assets belong to the Afghan people, and their release, which is crucial for helping the Afghan economy and saving lives, should not be politicized or conditional in any way,” he said.
Over the past months, Iran has provided more than 30 consignments of humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan, the ambassador said.
Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s emergency response teams were stretched to deal with the natural disasters that frequently strike the country.
But with only a handful of airworthy planes and helicopters left since they returned to power, any immediate response to the latest catastrophe is further limited.
“We hope that the International Community & aid agencies will also help our people in this dire situation,” tweeted Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official.
The Taliban have urgently renewed Afghanistan’s call on the U.S. to release the country’s assets. There are about $7 billion of Afghan funds from the country’s central bank frozen in the United States.
In February, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would seize the Afghan assets and move half to a fund purportedly designated for humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. However, Biden nodded to legal wrangling with some 9/11 families pursuing claims against those assets as the reason for not trying to free the other half of Afghan funds allegedly for the Afghan people.
The freeze has continued amid Afghanistan’s economy being on the verge of collapse, inflation soaring, and millions of Afghans on the brink of starvation.
However, Washington’s callous indifference to humanitarian crises is known to all and sundry.
When Iran was hit by the worst coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East, calls mounted from around the world on the United States to ease sanctions on the country in order to allow the Islamic Republic to buy vital medical equipment and vaccines from abroad, but Washington was unimpressed.
Afghanistan’s deadliest recent earthquake killed 5,000 in 1998 in the northeastern provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan.