At Least 155 Children Killed In Afghan Earthquake, Says UN

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 27, 2022

The earthquake that hit southeastern Afghanistan last week has killed at least 155 children, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordination organization, the OCHA, said in an update on June 26.

The OCHA said that another 250 children were injured in the magnitude 6 quake that struck the mountainous villages in the Paktika and Khost provinces near the country’s border with Pakistan, flattening homes and triggering landslides.

Most of the children died in Paktika’s hard-hit Giyan district, which remains a scene of life in ruins, days after the quake.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have put the total death toll from the quake at 1,150, with hundreds more injured.

The UN has offered a lower estimate of 770, although it has warned that the figure could still rise.

Another 65 children have reportedly been orphaned or left unaccompanied as a result of the disaster, the OCHA added.

The earthquake has highlighted even more the weaknesses of Afghanistan’s hard-line government and its isolation over human rights abuses since the Taliban swept to power after U.S.-led international troops withdrew from the country and the UN-backed Afghan government collapsed in August.

The UN children’s agency said on June 27 that it was working to reunite children that had been separated from their families in the chaos of the quake.

With reporting by AP

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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WHO Boosts Surveillance Amid Disease Outbreak Risk in Quake-Hit Parts of Afghanistan

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 26, 2022

ISLAMABAD — The World Health Organization said Sunday it was stepping up surveillance of infectious diseases in earthquake-hit areas of Afghanistan following warnings by local authorities that thousands of survivors are at risk of disease.

Afghan officials reported at least 1,150 people were killed, many more were injured, and thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed in Wednesday’s powerful quake.

The calamity caused most of the destruction in the southeastern Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost, some of the poorest and remotest mountainous areas near the Pakistani border, which lack the infrastructure to withstand disasters of this scale.

“The people are extremely needy for food and clean water,” Afghan health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman said Sunday. He added that officials had managed medicines for now but handling those who had lost their homes would be a challenge.

“We ask the international community, humanitarian organizations to help us… for food and medicine. The survivor might catch diseases because they don’t have proper houses and shelters for living.”

The WHO said in a statement that its response, and that of all health partners on the ground, is to treat the injured, save lives and minimize the risk of disease in the aftermath of this tragedy.

“WHO is increasing surveillance of infectious diseases such as acute watery diarrhea, measles, and COVID-19 by deploying disease surveillance and control officers and distributing medicines and supplies to health facilities in anticipation of an increase in cases.”

The statement noted that Afghanistan is one of the two remaining polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Pakistan, and polio staff are also contributing to relief efforts and supporting surveillance for other infectious diseases.

“The earthquake was yet another tragic reminder of the various risks facing the Afghan people and how critical that Afghanistan should not become another forgotten emergency by the global community,” said Luo Dapeng, the WHO representative in the war-torn country.

Hundreds of families were reportedly living in the open across several worst-affected districts. Those living in non-damaged and partially damaged buildings have also reportedly resorted to staying out in the open out of fear that there may be further tremors, according to U.N. officials.

The deadly earthquake is a major test for Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban rulers, who seized power last August, but have not been granted formal recognition by the global community due to concerns about human rights, including those of women.

The United Nations and several neighboring countries have rushed aid to the devasted Afghan districts. But helping thousands of victims remains a challenge for foreign countries because of the suspension of aid and the imposition of financial as well as banking-sector sanctions on Taliban-governed Afghanistan.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Saturday urged Washington to roll back the sanctions and unfreeze billions of dollars in Afghan foreign assets, mostly held in the United States, to help aid groups smoothly bring in much needed assistance to quake victims.

Hours after Muttaqi’s statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated while speaking to reporters Saturday that the administration was working to resolve the issue through a series of processes.

“We are urgently working to address complicated questions about the use of these funds to ensure they benefit the people of Afghanistan and not the Taliban,” she said.

She added that the Biden administration was not going to wait to help the people of Afghanistan recover and rebuild from their devastating earthquake. “USAID and our partner humanitarian organizations are already providing immediate assistance on the ground where it’s needed the most.”

President Joe Biden issued an executive order in February that was aimed at freeing up half the $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets on U.S. soil. The money would be used to benefit the Afghan people while the rest would be held for its possible use in terrorism-related lawsuits against the Taliban.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.

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Taliban Kill Former Anti-taliban Commander Along With His Wife and Daughter in Ghor Province

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8am: A local source in Ghor province said that the Taliban raided Mohammad Moradi’s house, one of the commanders of the public uprising forces in the former regime, killing him along with his wife and daughter on Saturday night (June 25th). According to the source, the incident took place in Chahar Asyab village of Sar-e-Jangal, Lal wa Sar-e-Jangal district in Ghor province. Click here to read (external link).

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Polio vaccination campaign rolls out in western Afghanistan

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Child getting polio drops (file photo)

Ariana: More than one million Afghan children are expected to be vaccinated over the next few days in the latest polio vaccination campaign that was launched in western Afghanistan on Sunday. Officials said the campaign will run for four days and be conducted across four provinces in the western region. Click here to read more (external link).

Other Health News 

Taliban Bans Listening to Music at Kabul University Dormitory

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8am: The Taliban have ordered all the students that music is forbidden, adding that the students are not allowed to listen to music neither in the dormitory rooms nor in the dining hall. In the meantime, most students at Kabul University dormitory have raised concerns and consider the new order as turning the university into a prison. Click here to read more (external link).

Kabul Should Create Inclusive Govt: Qaisari

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Qaisari

Tolo News: The former police head for the Qaisar district of Faryab province under the previous government, Nizamuddin Qaisari, returned to Kabul on Sunday after spending 10 months in Tehran. “You should provide me a portion in the government because there are a lot of people of Turk decent. They should have a share of our intellectuals and cadres and appoint them to departments and ministries,” said Nizamuddin Qaisari, the former police chief for Qaisar district, Faryab. Click here to read more (external link).

‘War On Education’: Taliban Converting Secular Schools Into Religious Seminaries

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
June 25, 2022

Equipped with a science laboratory, library, and computer lab, the Abdul Hai Habibi High School was considered one of the most modern and prestigious government schools in southeastern Afghanistan.

But since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the secular school in the city of Khost has been converted into a madrasah, or religious seminary, forcing many of its 6,000 students and 130 teachers to leave.

“It has upset people,” Sainullah Siyal, a graduate of the school, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “It is wrong to turn secular schools into madrasahs.”

Abdul Hai Habibi is among the dozens of state schools, public universities, and vocational training centers that the Taliban has turned into Islamic seminaries across the country.

Critics say the aim of the Islamist militant group is to root out all forms of the modern secular education that thrived in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban’s first regime.

Transforming Afghanistan’s education system has been one of the Taliban’s main goals since it regained power. The militants have banned girls from attending high school, imposed gender segregation and a new dress code at public universities, and vowed to overhaul the national curriculum. The Taliban has also unveiled plans to build a vast network of madrasahs across the country’s 34 provinces.

Madrasahs have a special place in the Taliban’s worldview. The word “taliban” means students of madrasahs. Many members of the Taliban, which first emerged in the 1990s, studied at radical Islamic seminaries in neighboring Pakistan.

During the Taliban’s brutal rule from 1996-2001, the group banned secular education and replaced it with religious schooling. No girls were allowed to go to school and women could not attend university. The Taliban-run madrasahs promoted militant ideologies and taught boys to recite the Koran from memory.

During its nearly 20-year insurgency, the Taliban reestablished its madrasahs in mostly rural areas under its control. It also bombed or burned secular schools in government-held territory.

‘A Major Tragedy’

A teacher in eastern Afghanistan, who spoke to Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the Taliban was converting training centers for teachers into madrasahs. He said the centers, which follow the existing curriculum devised by the former government, provided training to new teachers. Each province has at least one training center for teachers.

“In certain provinces, the [Taliban’s] Education Ministry has already handed over training centers to be converted into jihadist madrasahs,” he said.

He said the Taliban has already converted training centers in the northern province of Baghlan and the eastern province of Kunar into madrasahs.

“This is a major tragedy and amounts to a war on education,” another teacher in eastern Afghanistan, who also requested anonymity due to safety concerns, told Radio Azadi. “The Taliban’s attitude towards education is destructive.”

The Taliban, however, has showed no sign of halting its policy.

Earlier this month, the Taliban transformed the offices of Metra, a private television station in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, into a madrasah.

Noorullah Munir, the Taliban’s education minister, has said that religious education is a priority for the group.

“We have 20,000 [secular] schools across Afghanistan, but the seminaries registered with the Islamic Emirate are not more than 1,000,” he was quoted as saying by the private TOLOnews television station, using the official name of the Taliban government.

Earlier this month, the ministry announced plans to build state-run madrasahs accommodating 1,000 students in each province.

“The claims that we are converting schools into madrasahs are incorrect,” Aziz Ahmad Rayan, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Education Ministry, told Radio Azadi. “[Secular] schools are important in their own right.”

Rayan said the aim of the plan is to prevent Afghan students from seeking religious education abroad. Over the years, many Taliban fighters have studied at hard-line madrasahs in Pakistan that are often blamed for providing foot soldiers for militant groups in the region.

But Afghans are not convinced. Mohammad Mohiq, an Islamic scholar, accused the Taliban of employing “social engineering.” He said the Taliban has a systematic plan to “brainwash” the next generation in madrasahs by undermining secular schools.

“This way, they can keep recruiting [madrasah] students to be their soldiers and build a medieval theocratic system,” he said.

Written by Abubakar Siddique, based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Taliban Urges US to Lift Curbs and Unfreeze Funds to Help Quake-hit Afghanistan

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Muttaqi

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 25, 2022

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban renewed their call Saturday for the United States to unfreeze Afghanistan’s foreign funds and lift financial sanctions to help the war-torn country deal with its deadliest earthquake in more than two decades.

The United Nations said humanitarian organizations, in coordination with Taliban authorities, are continuing to provide aid to families in Paktika and Khost, the two southeastern Afghan provinces hardest hit by Wednesday’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake.

“There are, however, unconfirmed reports that between 700 and 800 families are living in the open across three of the six worst-affected districts,” said a U.N. statement Saturday.

“Families living in non-damaged and partially damaged buildings have also reportedly resorted to living out in the open out of fear that there may be further tremors,” the statement added.

The quake killed 1,150 people, injured about 1,600 and destroyed nearly 3,000 homes, with hundreds more partially damaged, according to Taliban officials. The destruction hit some of the poorest and most remote mountainous Afghan areas near the Pakistan border which lacks the infrastructure to withstand calamities of this scale. At least 121 children were among those killed and the toll is likely to increase, according to the U.N. children’s fund UNICEF.

Afghan authorities have called off the search for survivors, and they were struggling to deliver critically needed aid due to capacity challenges.

“In these testing times, we call on the United States to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and lift sanctions on Afghan banks so that aid agencies could easily deliver assistance to Afghanistan,” Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said Saturday, while speaking to reporters in the capital, Kabul.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order in February that was aimed at freeing up half the $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets on U.S. soil. The money would be used to benefit the Afghan people while the rest would be held to possibly satisfy terrorism-related lawsuits against the Taliban.

“We are urgently working to address complicated questions about the use of these funds to ensure they benefit the people of Afghanistan and not the Taliban,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Saturday.

But she reiterated the Biden administration was not waiting and was working through international partners to urgently get aid to the Afghan people.

The UNICEF representative in the country, Mohamed Ayoya, visited one of the worst-hit districts in Paktika and described the situation on Twitter.

“I saw despair, desolation, suffering, vulnerability but also resilience & acts of solidarity from national businessmen, international organizations & authorities,” Ayoya wrote.

More foreign aid arrives

Meanwhile, Afghan officials said cargo planes from neighboring Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and the gulf state of Qatar, carrying relief supplies for survivors, landed at the Khost airport.

Mansoor Ahmad Khan, the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul, said in a Twitter post that his country had also stationed “19 paramedics/doctors…at Khost Airport from 23 June with 3 ambulances & mobile hospital to treat injured & refer serious to hospitals in Pakistan.”

China said it would provide humanitarian assistance worth $7.5 million to Afghanistan, including tents, towels, beds and other supplies urgently needed in quake-devastated areas.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Saturday the first batch of supplies was scheduled to depart for the crisis-hit neighbor by charter flights Monday.

“In the next few days, China will coordinate closely with the Afghan interim government to ensure the rapid delivery of the relief supplies into the hands of the people in need,” Wenbin said.

Britain has also pledged to provide $3 million for immediate life-saving support to Afghans affected by the devastating earthquake.

The international community has not yet recognized the Taliban’s interim government since the Islamist insurgent group took over Afghanistan last August, citing concerns over human rights and terrorism.

The Taliban takeover came as U.S. and NATO partners withdrew their final troops, ending almost two decades of foreign military intervention in the South Asian nation.

Washington and other Western countries have since halted financial assistance to largely aid-dependent Afghanistan, seized its foreign assets worth more than $9 billion, mostly held by the U.S, and isolated the Afghan banking system.

The actions and long-running terrorism-related sanctions on senior Taliban leaders have thrown cash-strapped Afghanistan into a severe economic crisis, worsening an already bad humanitarian crisis blamed on years of war and persistent drought.

The United Nations estimates that 97% of Afghanistan’s 40 million people will be living below the poverty line this year.

U.S. Acting Political Counselor Trina Saha told a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday that the Afghan earthquake was a devastating blow to a population that is already suffering gravely.

“We call for urgent donor assistance to relief efforts,” she said. Saha added that “the earthquake highlights the vulnerability of the Afghan people and underscores the dire need for continued humanitarian assistance.”

Relief Supplies Arrive As Rescue Efforts End Following Deadly Afghan Earthquake

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
June 25, 2022

Tents, food, and medical supplies are arriving in eastern Afghanistan following a deadly earthquake and powerful aftershock.

The death toll resulting from the June 22 earthquake rose to about 1,150 on June 24, according to Abdul Wahid Rayan, the Taliban director of the state-run Bakhtar News Agency.

Rayan said at least 1,600 people were injured when the earthquake hit three mountainous regions near the Pakistani border.

An aftershock on June 24 killed five more people shortly after the Taliban authorities announced that search-and-rescue operations had ended.

The death toll makes the earthquake, which was measured at a magnitude of 6.1, Afghanistan’s worst natural disaster in two decades.

A Pakistani military cargo plane carrying relief supplies landed early on June 25 in Khost Province, one of the three eastern regions along with Paktika and Nangarhar that were most affected by the earthquake.

The disaster has posed a challenge for the Taliban-led government, which is not recognized by any country and is already battling a severe humanitarian disaster.

On June 24, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry for Disaster Management, told the media that 10,000 houses were partially or completely destroyed in the earthquake.

On June 23, Haqqani told RFE/RL that it was difficult to get accurate information about the damage because of the poor condition of the telephone network in some areas.

He said supplies of medicine and other critical aid were inadequate.

Aid organizations such as the local Red Crescent and World Food Program have stepped in to assist the most vulnerable families with food and other emergency needs like tents and sleeping mats in Paktika and Khost provinces.

Wahidullah Amani, a spokesman for the World Food Program (WFP) for Afghanistan, told RFE/RL that the WFP and other partners were on their way to the affected areas.

Taliban rulers on June 25 pledged that they would not interfere with international efforts to distribute aid to those affected by the earthquake.

Aid organizations in the past have complained that Taliban authorities have tried to divert aid to people who supported their insurgency. No country has as of yet officially recognized the Taliban government following its takeover of the country last year.

But Khan Mohammad Ahmad, a top official in Paktika Province, said international groups aiding in relief efforts would be left free to conduct their work.

“Whether it is WFP, UNICEF, or any other organizations…the international community or the United Nations…they will do the distribution by themselves,” he said.

Rescuers struggled earlier to reach remote areas as efforts were hampered by bad roads and heavy rain and as the country’s Taliban rulers called on the international community to make donations to help with relief efforts.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that eight trucks carrying food and other supplies had arrived from Pakistan. Aid also arrived by air from Iran and Qatar, he said.

The United Nations said it was deploying health teams and providing medical supplies, but it said it does not have search-and-rescue capabilities in Afghanistan.

The World Health Organization has also warned that the crisis could add to the risk of cholera developing across the country.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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