By Sayed Hassib and Charlotte Greenfield
KABUL/MAZAR DARA, Afghanistan (Reuters) -Rescue workers battled to pull bodies from the rubble of homes razed in Afghanistan’s earthquakes this week, as time runs out for survivors, who face a bleak future with global aid agencies warning of dwindling funds for food, shelter and medicines.
Search operations ran late into Wednesday in the quake-hit mountainous eastern areas as more bodies were dug out, the Taliban administration said, adding that the death toll had crossed 1,457 but exact numbers had yet to be compiled.
“Everything we had has been destroyed,” said Aalem Jan, a survivor in the worst affected province of Kunar.
“Our house collapsed, and all our belongings and possessions were lost. The only remaining things are these clothes on our backs.”
The first earthquake of magnitude 6, one of Afghanistan’s deadliest in recent years, unleashed widespread damage and destruction in the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar on Sunday, when it struck at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles).
A second quake of magnitude 5.5 on Tuesday caused panic and interrupted rescue efforts as it sent rocks sliding down mountains and cut off roads to villages in remote areas.
About 3,400 more have been injured and more than 6,700 homes have been destroyed, authorities have said. The United Nations has warned the toll could rise with people still trapped under rubble as time runs out for survivors.
Humanitarian needs are “vast and growing rapidly”, said aid group the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
“Up to 84,000 people are directly and indirectly affected, with thousands displaced,” it added, citing initial figures.
Entire households were wiped out in some villages in Kunar province. Survivors desperately searching for family members sifted rubble, carried bodies on woven stretchers and dug graves with pickaxes in the wait for aid to arrive.
Visuals from Reuters TV showed trucks, some laden with sacks of flour and others men with shovels, travelling to remote villages on higher slopes. Authorities also airdropped dozens of commando forces at sites where helicopters could not land.
Resources for rescue and relief work are tight in the South Asian nation of 42 million people pulverised by war, poverty and shrinking aid, where harsh weather presents a further challenge.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s funding cuts to foreign aid and donor frustration over the Taliban’s restrictive policies towards women and its curbs on aid workers have worsened Afghanistan’s isolation.
The World Health Organisation pointed to a funding gap of $3 million, saying it was critical to keep medicines, trauma kits, and essential commodities flowing amid rising demand.
The U.N. World Food Programme has funding and stocks to support the survivors for just four more weeks, its country head, John Aylieff, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Jacopo Caridi, his counterpart at the Norwegian Refugee Council, called for donors to step up for the long haul, going beyond life-saving relief to ensure Afghans a chance at a future beyond perpetual emergency.
“The earthquake should serve as a stark reminder: Afghanistan cannot be left to face one crisis after another alone,” he added.
(Reporting by Sayed Hassib in Mazar Dara, Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul, Charlotte Greenfield and Saeed Shah in Islamabad; Writing by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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