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 Officials expressed concern the unstable hillside above the site
of the disaster may cave in again, threatening the homeless as well
as the U.N. and local rescue teams that have arrived in Badakhshan
province, which borders Tajikistan.
"More than 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead," Naweed
Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told
Reuters.
Villagers and a few dozen police, equipped with only basic digging
tools, resumed their search when daylight broke but it soon became
clear there was no hope of finding survivors buried in up to 100
meters of mud.
"Seven members of my family were here, four or five of them were
killed ... I am also half alive, what can I do?" said an elderly
woman, her hair covered in a pink shawl.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said the focus was now on the more
than 4,000 people displaced, either directly as a result of Friday's
landslide or as a precautionary measure from villages assessed to be
at risk.
Their main needs are water, medicine, food and emergency shelter,
said Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan.
The impoverished area, dotted with villages of mud-brick homes
nestled in valleys beside bare slopes, has been hit by several
landslides in recent years.
PLEA FOR HELP
The side of the mountain above Ab Barak collapsed at around 11 a.m.
(0630 GMT) on Friday as people were trying to recover belongings and
livestock after a smaller landslip hit a few hours earlier.
Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the landslides that were
triggered by torrential rain. Officials worry another section of the
mountainside could collapse at any time.
The Afghan military flew rescue teams to the area on Saturday, as
the remote mountain region is served by only narrow, poor roads
which have themselves been damaged by more than a week of heavy
rain.
"We have managed to get one excavator into the area, but digging
looks hopeless," Colonel Abdul Qadeer Sayad, a deputy police chief
of Badakhshan, told Reuters.
He said the sheer size of the area affected, and the depth of the
mud, meant that only modern machinery could help.
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NATO-led coalition troops are on standby to assist but on Saturday
said the Afghan government had not asked for help.
"I call on the government to come and help our people, to take the
bodies out," said a middle-aged man, standing on a hill overlooking
the river of mud where his village once stood.
"We managed to take out only 10-15 people, the rest of our villagers
here are trapped."
FREEZING
Hundreds of people camped out overnight in near freezing conditions,
although some were given tents. Officials distributed food and
water.
At least 100 people were being treated for injuries, most of them by
medics who set up facilities in a stable building.
Seasonal rains and spring snow melt have caused devastation across
large swathes of northern Afghanistan, killing more than 100 people
before this latest disaster.
U.S. President Barack Obama said American forces were on standby to
help.
"Just as the United States has stood with the people of Afghanistan
through a difficult decade, we stand ready to help our Afghan
partners as they respond to this disaster, for even as our war there
comes to an end this year, our commitment to Afghanistan and its
people will endure," he said.
About 30,000 U.S. soldiers remain in Afghanistan, although that
number is falling as Washington prepares to withdraw all combat
troops who battled Taliban insurgents by the end of this year.
Police said they had provided a security ring around the area, which
has been relatively free of insurgent attacks. The Taliban said in a
statement they were also willing to provide security.
(Writing by Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Robert Birsel and Pravin
Char)
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