Red Cross makes €6m quake appeal
The 6.4-magnitude quake hit a poverty-stricken region near the Afghan border before dawn on Wednesday, leaving thousands homeless. The official death toll is 215, but likely to rise to more than 300, said officials.
Relief workers were still discovering mountain villages wrecked by the quake that had yet to receive aid, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. In its statement yesterday, the Red Cross estimated about 20,000 to 30,000 people have been affected. The UN has put the figure at more than 100,000, half of them children.
Worst-hit was the Ziarat district, which has about 50,000 residents and is about 60km north of Quetta city, the ICRC said.
“Over 4,000 mud and timber houses were destroyed, leaving thousands of people homeless,” said Pascal Cuttat, a Red Cross official in Islamabad.
“Our priority will be to provide shelter as winter sets in. Because of continuing aftershocks, many people decided to sleep outdoors at altitudes of 6,500 to 8,200 feet.”
Authorities and the army are trucking tents, sleeping bags and food packages to villagers in the affected valleys of Baluchistan province.
The Red Cross and authorities were also mustering supplies of antibiotics for the few clinics in the region to combat a wave of chest infections among children.
UNICEF said it was trucking water supplies to Ziarat town in a bid to prevent an outbreak of cholera and diarrhoea in young children. It appealed for $5m from donors.
On Friday, the US said it would provide an initial $1m in assistance. China, Germany and other countries have also offered financial help.
Baluchistan province is inhabited mainly by Pashtuns, the same ethnic group from which the Taliban draws its strength.
An Islamic charity accused of terrorist links by the US has been aiding the survivors of the quake and has pledged to build 1,000 temporary homes.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other hardline groups also aided survivors of a 2005 quake that killed 80,000 people in Kashmir and northern Pakistan.
