Afghan mudslide survivors fight over aid

Fighting breaks out among villagers of Aab Bareek as they rush for emergency supplies three days after hundreds died.

Survivors of a deadly mudslide in Afghanistan’s north are struggling to cope three days after the disaster struck, with fighting breaking out as they scrambled for emergency aid in the country’s north.

Villagers scuffled with each other in a bid to get access to food, water and tents, after 15 army trucks arrived with supplies in the village of Aab Bareek in Badakhshan province.

Police fired warning shots in the air before the aid was sent to a dispensing centre at the provincial capital Faizabad, a two hour drive from the stricken village.

The displaced villagers complained of nearby towns taking supplies meant for them.

“People from other villages came here and received help but the actual needy people are ignored by the officials,” Rahmatullah, a villager who lost five family members, told the Reuters news agency.

“There is no proper plan to give aid to the needy,” he said.

Hundreds of families are struggling to get food and shelter in the remote part of the country, after Friday’s landslide killed at least 250 people, with hundreds more missing and feared dead, according to a government tally.

Al Jazeera’s Abdullah Shahood, reporting from Badakhshan, said people were digging and looking for relatives themselves but a lack of machinery and equipment was hampering their search efforts.

“They haven’t given up… but it is impossible with no technology and just [using] shovels [for] digging piles of mud to recover the dead bodies,” Shahood said.

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