What is the scale of destruction and loss of life after the Afghanistan earthquake? Ambassador Nasir Andisha, Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN, shares his thoughts.
00:00First of all, give us the latest of what you know and paint the picture of the scale of the destruction and loss of life as well following not just the initial quake, but also the subsequent 5.2 quake from today.
00:10Well, thank you very much. We are closely in touch with the UN offices here, particularly OCHA, which is monitoring the situation and have established a base in the Jalalabad Air Base Airport and the sort of to do the rescue operations and to coordinate humanitarian activities.
00:30I think the picture is now access has been established in most of the remote areas, as you also mentioned.
00:37This is one of the mountainous areas in Afghanistan. Afghanistan generally is a mountainous country.
00:42But this particular corner of eastern Afghanistan bordering with Pakistan, Qunar and Nicaragua, Nuristan, Lakhman provinces, you know, the villages are very scattered and remote in the mountains.
00:55And the situation was further exacerbated, you know, the problem by a by a flat, which was there a few days back.
01:02And also the access to these roads, which are mostly, you know, antarmic roads, ordinary roads, you know, had difficulty of reaching.
01:11And Taliban has very few, if any, helicopters which could reach there.
01:17But now the contact has been established, access has been established.
01:22Initially, you know, some medical aides has reached the places.
01:26I think the injuries have been now transferred to Jalalabad Hospital, which is, you know, the far, far away, you know, with roads.
01:36It will take hours and hours, probably, you know, more than six, seven hours for people to reach.
01:41But I think that's the situation right now.
01:44And what is needed right now mostly is medical assistance, but also rescue teams, which is not in the capacity of the Taliban.
01:54There is no professional rescue officials or, you know, corps, neither within the Taliban ranks.
02:01And the Ministry of State for Emergency and Afghanistan Red Cross and society or, you know, the capacity is very low.
02:08So, so far, there have been lots of pledges of assistance, but we all know that, you know, access to that area and technical difficulties will prevent it from being swift and effective enough.
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