At least 155 children were killed in last week's earthquake in Afghanistan, UN says
The U.N.'s humanitarian coordination organization, OCHA, said on Sunday that another 250 children were injured in the magnitude 6 temblor that struck the mountainous villages in the Paktika and Khost provinces near the country's border with Pakistan, flattening homes and triggering landslides.
For hours, he called for help, shouting from under a deep pile of mud. When he and his neighbors finally cleared the wreckage, he discovered a nightmarish scene - the bodies of 12 family members, including his son and daughter, laying dead in the debris. Four other relatives were injured. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have put the total death toll from the quake at 1,150, with hundreds more injured, while the U.N. has offered a lower estimate of 770, although it has warned the figure could still rise.
The disaster - the latest to convulse Afghanistan after decades of war, hunger, poverty and an economic crash - has become a test of the Taliban's capacity to govern and the international community's willingness to help. Aware of their limitations, the Taliban have appealed for foreign aid. The U.N. and an array of overstretched aid agencies in the country that have tried to keep Afghanistan from the brink of starvation have swung into action.