Politics
Afghanistan earthquake death toll tops 2,200, survivors face aid crunch
- At least 2,205 killed, 3,640 injured in Afghanistan quakes.
- Another 12 killed in Nangarhar and Laghman.
- “Rescue efforts still ongoing”, says deputy spokesperson.
The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan at the weekend rose sharply to more than 2,200 on Thursday, according to a new toll, making it the deadliest in decades to hit the country.
The vast majority of those killed in the magnitude-6.0 earthquake that jolted the mountainous region bordering Pakistan late on Sunday were in Kunar province, where 2,205 people died and 3,640 were injured, according to a Taliban government toll.
Another 12 people were killed and hundreds injured in the neighbouring provinces of Nangarhar and Laghman. The toll had been expected to rise as volunteers and rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble.
“Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from destroyed houses during search and rescue operations,” deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat wrote on X on Thursday, announcing the new toll, adding that “rescue efforts are still ongoing”.
Limited access to the hardest hit areas of mountainous Kunar province has delayed rescue and relief efforts, with rockfalls from repeated aftershocks obstructing already precarious roads etched onto the side of cliffs.
Various countries have flown in aid, but hundreds of villagers in the hard-hit Nurgal district were still stranded in the open air, squeezing multiple families under pieces of tarp pulled from the rubble and unsure of where they would get a morsel to eat.
A fight broke out over food when some finally reached the field in Mazar Dara where hundreds of people were camped out, little aid having reached them.
“Yesterday, some people brought some food, everyone flooded on them, people are starving, we haven´t had anything to eat for a long time,” Zahir Khan Safi, 48, told AFP.
‘Every hour counts’
Poor infrastructure in the impoverished country, still fragile from four decades of war, has also stymied the emergency response.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that local healthcare services were “under immense strain”, with shortages of trauma supplies, medicines and staff.
The agency has appealed for $4 million to deliver lifesaving health interventions and expand mobile health services and supply distribution.
“Every hour counts,” said WHO emergency team lead in Afghanistan Jamshed Tanoli. “Hospitals are struggling, families are grieving and survivors have lost everything.”
The loss of US foreign aid to the country in January this year has exacerbated the rapid depletion of emergency stockpiles and logistical resources.
NGOs and the UN have warned that the earthquake creates a crisis within a crisis, with cash-strapped Afghanistan already contending with overlapping humanitarian disasters.
Filippo Grandi, head of the UN’s refugee agency, said the quake had “affected more than 500,000 people” in eastern Afghanistan.
The country is contending with endemic poverty, severe drought, and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover.
Even as Afghanistan reeled from its latest disaster, Pakistan began a new push to expel Afghans, with more than 6,300 people crossing the Torkham border point in quake-hit Nangarhar province on Tuesday.
- Justice dept data shows violent crime at 30-year low in DC.
- DC AG files lawsuit against troop deployment.
- Protesters chant slogans denouncing Trump.
WASHINGTON: Several thousand Washington DC residents on Saturday marched to demand US President Donald Trump end the deployment of National Guard troops patrolling the capital city’s streets.
Protesters at the “We Are All DC” march, who included undocumented immigrants and supporters of Palestine, chanted slogans denouncing Trump and carried posters, some which read “Trump must go now,” “Free DC” and “Resist Tyranny.”
“I’m here to protest the occupation of DC,” said Alex Laufer. “We’re opposing the authoritarian regime, and we need to get the federal police and the National Guard off our streets.”
Claiming that crime was blighting the city, Trump last month deployed the troops to “re-establish law, order, and public safety.” Trump also placed the capital district’s Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel, including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to police the city’s streets.
But Justice Department data showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington, a self-governing federal district under the jurisdiction of the US Congress.
The National Guard serves as a militia that answers to the governors of the 50 states except when called into federal service. The DC National Guard reports directly to the president.
“What they’re trying to do in DC is what they’re trying to do with other dictatorships,” said Casey, who declined to give his last name. “They’re testing DC, and if people tolerate it enough, they’re gonna do it to more and more areas. So we have to stop it while we still can.”
More than 2,000 troops, including from six Republican-led states, are patrolling the city. It is unclear when their mission will end, though the Army this week extended orders for the DC National Guard through November 30.
Washington DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Thursday filed a lawsuit for courts to block the troop deployment, arguing that it was unconstitutional and violated multiple federal laws.
But some residents have welcomed the National Guard and called for the troops to be deployed in the less affluent parts of the city where crime is rampant. The National Guard has been mostly visible in downtown and tourist areas.
Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser has praised Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement personnel into the city, but hoped that the National Guard’s mission would end soon. Bowser said there had been a sharp decline in crime, including carjackings since the surge. The mayor this week signed an order requiring the city to coordinate with federal law enforcement.
China on Saturday said that its military monitored the passage of Australian and Canadian warships through the Taiwan Strait, criticising their presence in the sensitive waterway as “causing trouble”.
Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory and claims jurisdiction over the body of water that separates the self-ruled island from the Chinese mainland.
“On September 6, the Canadian frigate ‘Quebec’ and the Australian destroyer ‘Brisbane’ transited the Taiwan Strait, causing trouble and provoking,” said Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The PLA “organised naval and air forces to monitor and supervise their entire transits, effectively responding and handling the situation”, Shi said in a statement.
“The actions of Canada and Australia send the wrong signals and increase security risks,” he added.
“[Chinese] troops remain on high alert at all times, resolutely safeguarding national sovereignty and security and regional peace and stability.”
Beijing has ramped up deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent years to press its sovereignty claim, which Taipei rejects.
The United States frequently sends ships through the Taiwan Strait, and several of its Western allies have increased their presence with regular — though less common — transits.
In June, China criticised the United Kingdom for sending a navy patrol vessel through the waterway, saying it “undermined peace and stability”.
Following setbacks in Operation Sundoor, the Indian government has once again resorted to leveling false allegations against Pakistan.
After the embarrassment of the Pahalgam false flag operation, another fabricated drama has surfaced in Indian media.
According to reports, Indian outlets have claimed—without evidence—that Mumbai Traffic Control Room received fake calls about bombs planted at various locations in the city.
In these baseless reports, attempts have been made once again to link Pakistan with terrorism. Analysts note that India is attempting to malign Pakistan at the international stage despite repeated embarrassments.
Observers believe such self-staged narratives are aimed at diverting attention from India’s internal failures, creating fear among the public, and exploiting the situation for political gain.
Earlier, Indian media had also falsely labeled three Pakistani citizens, traveling to Cambodia for employment, as terrorists. This propaganda, according to experts, reflects an effort to conceal domestic turmoil inside India.
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