Land Mines Hinder Quake Aid Effort

Land mines disgorged by aftershocks and landslides are slowing aid workers trying to reach earthquake victims in Afghanistan.

Crews trying to deliver food and tents must now move gingerly on roads once considered safe, the United Nations and private aid groups said Thursday. Other shipments are being brought in by British and U.S. helicopters.

“When the land moves like this, it litters the areas that have been de-mined,” said Chris Hyslop, an emergency program officer with the aid group Mercy Corps. “I can’t speak for all the humanitarian agencies, but we don’t go anywhere it isn’t safe.”

On Thursday, the battered country observed a national day of mourning as it struggled to count the dead from Monday’s quake.

The magnitude 6.1 temblor heavily damaged nearly 80 villages in a mountainous region nine miles wide, leaving an estimated 100,000 people homeless or cut off from food supplies.

The United Nations said the estimated death toll stood at about 600 Wednesday, but the final number was expected to be between 800 and 1,200.

On Wednesday, relief workers brought food, medicine and tents to Nahrin, 105 miles north of the capital, Kabul. U.S. and British forces dispatched six helicopters laden with food and blankets.

In the largely isolated Burka region, an estimated 12,000 people were homeless, Hyslop said. The quake leveled 95% of the mud-brick homes in the area’s 11 villages, and aftershocks took care of the rest, he said.

“If it’s not destroyed,” Hyslop said, “it’s about to fall down.”