ROX• TV | Afghanistan shattered: 800+ dead in midnight earthquake

An aftershock shook a hard-hit area of eastern Afghanistan on Friday, two days after an earthquake rattled the region, razing hundreds of mud-brick homes and killing 1,150 people, according to state media. The temblor was the poverty-stricken country's deadliest in two decades.

Pakistan's Meteorological Department reported a 4.2 magnitude quake in southeastern Afghanistan. The Reuters news agency pointed out that its epicenter was in almost the exact same place as Wednesday's quake. Afghanistan's state-run Bakhtar News Agency said the aftershock took five more lives and injured 11 people.

The nation of 38 million people was already in the midst of a spiraling economic crisis that had plunged millions deep into poverty with over a million children at risk of severe malnutrition.

The magnitude 6 quake on Wednesday struck at night as people were sleeping and left thousands without shelter. It brought into sharp focus the country's compounding needs. Afghanistan remains cut off from the international monetary system, and aid groups lament having to pay local staff with bags of cash delivered by hand as nations refuse to deal directly with the Taliban.

Aid organizations like the local Red Crescent and U.N. 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 province, the epicenter of the earthquake, and neighboring Khost province.
Still, residents appeared to be largely on their own to deal with the aftermath as their new Taliban-led government and the international aid community struggle to bring in help. The shoddy mountain roads leading to the affected areas were made worse by damage and rain. Villagers have been burying their dead and digging through the rubble by hand in search of survivors.

The Taliban director of the Bakhtar agency said Friday the death toll had risen to 1,150 people from previous reports of 1,000 killed. Abdul Wahid Rayan said at least 1,600 people were injured.

It's not clear how death toll counts are being reached, given the difficulties of accessing and communicating with the impacted villages.
State media reported that close to 3,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged. In the district of Gayan, at least 1,000 homes were damaged by the earthquake. Another 800 homes in the Spera district of Khost province were also damaged.

While modern buildings withstand magnitude 6 earthquakes elsewhere, Afghanistan's mud-brick homes and landslide-prone mountains make such quakes more dangerous.
Roads in the area are so poorly paved and difficult to navigate that some villages in Gayan District take a full day to reach from the capital of Kabul, though it is only 110 miles away.

Agence France-Presse spotted seven trucks from the World Food Programme rolling into the village of Wuchkai Friday morning, 24 hours after it left Kabul. leaving Kabul.

Gut-wrenching scenes

In villages across Gayan district, toured by Associated Press