The Japan Times - Afghan deputy PM visits earthquake hit area

Abdul Ghani Baradar, co-founder of the Taliban with Mullah Omar, visited the eastern province of Kunar where the worst damage was seen from the magnitude 6 earthquake on August 31, according to his office.

In the Friday sermon that followed the disaster, the government's religious authorities claimed the earthquake and its aftershocks were "divine punishment", calling on Afghans to repent.

Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, is wracked by a humanitarian crisis after decades of war.

On Friday, Baradar called on "all officials to collect aid and distribute it transparently".

"Efforts are being made to rebuild destroyed homes and provide the necessary infrastructure to reduce damage from future natural disasters," he said, according to his office.

Thousands of families are now surviving in open fields or tents in mountainous rural areas. The United Nations said half of those who died were children.

On Thursday evening, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi assured diplomats that "441 flights" had delivered aid to villages cut off by landslides and rockfalls, and that the injured had been evacuated by helicopter.

The UN is concerned about the risk of disease spreading among the victims but, like other international NGOs, it has been forced to reduce its assistance to Afghans due to cuts in aid spending.

The UN is also battling segregation rules imposed by Taliban authorities on its staff, which led to the organisation suspending its assistance to the millions of Afghans expelled from neighbouring countries.

K.Okada--JT