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Search on for survivors

May 3, 2014

Rescuers are searching for scores of people missing or feared dead after a landslide buried a remote village in northeast Afghanistan. The site is expected to become a mass grave.

https://p.dw.com/p/1BtF5
Afghan villagers gather at the site of a landslide at the Argo district in Badakhshan province, May 2, 2014. More than 2,000 people are trapped after a landslide smashed into a village in a remote mountainous area of northeastern Afghanistan on Friday, a spokesman for the local governor said, prompting a massive search and rescue effort. REUTERS/Stringer
Image: REUTERS

Figures on the number of people killed by Friday's landslide are varying, with UN estimates saying 350 people had perished, while provincial officials put it as high as 2,000.

Rescuers have tried to dig out victims trapped under the mud, which swamped the Hobo Barak village in Badakhshan province. Heavy rains had triggered the disaster.

Badakhshan official Abdullah Homayun Dehqan said the disaster was caused by two landslides. The first and smaller one covered a few houses, but those who came to the rescue were swamped by a second, larger one. He said authorities were distributing food and water to those affected, amid worries of further bad news.

"There is fear of another landslide. Our assessment team have seen a crack in a nearby hill," Dehqan said.

"We have started distributing food...but we don't have enough tents for all the 700 families who spent the night outside. There are around 2,000 people - women, children, elders - without homes."

Rescuers have struggled to reach the remote area, which has been hit by several landslides in recent years. There is little infrastructure and roads cannot take heavy machinery.

The northeastern province - which lies roughly 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Kabul - is one of Afghanistan's most remote areas and shares a border with Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.

Mass grave

UN spokesman Ari Gaitanis said the site was expected to be designated a mass grave, with a memorial service planned for later on Saturday. The UN mission in Afghanistan said the focus was on the thousands of people displaced, either directly from the landslide or those who were removed from their villages as a precautionary measure.

"All the relevant UN agencies - together with the Afghan Red Crescent Society and NGO partners - are already on the ground," said the UN mission in Afghanistan.

Those not given tents were forced to camp out overnight in freezing conditions, while dozens are being treated for injuries.

US President Barack Obama said American forces were on standby to help. At least 30,000 US soldiers remain in the country, but the number is falling as international military forces winds down their operations, in anticipation of withdrawing almost all troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

jr/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters)