Mohamed Bin Zayed sends urgent food, medical supplies to earthquake-hit Afghanistan
A girl walks amidst the rubble of damaged houses following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on Thursday. AFP
Under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, an air bridge was established to respond to the victims of Afghanistan earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people.
The UAE dispatched food and basic medical supplies, along with a medical team to set up a field hospital.
Sending aid comes in light of the UAE’s continuous follow-up to the current situation in Afghanistan and its effective contribution to alleviating the repercussions of the devastating earthquake that struck southeast Afghanistan on Wednesday, leaving thousands of victims and injured and resulting in a shortage of food and medicine needs for a large segment of the population of the earthquake affected area, especially for Afghan families, the elderly, children and women.
Villagers rushed to bury the dead on Thursday and dug by hand through the rubble of their homes in search of survivors of the powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban and the international community that fled their takeover struggled to bring help to the disaster's victims.
Under a leaden sky in Paktika province, which was the epicenter of Wednesday's magnitude 6.1 earthquake, men dug a line of graves in one village, as they tried to lay the dead to rest quickly in line with Muslim tradition. In one courtyard, bodies lay wrapped in plastic to protect them from the rains that are hampering relief efforts for the living.
