Late last night the number had reached
about 800. I had uh spoken to Taliban
officials who told me at the time that
they expected many more people um to end
up dead because of course not only are
they completely cut off uh from the
world. This we have to remember is one
of the most remote uh places not just in
Afghanistan but on the planet. Even when
coalition forces, British forces,
Americans were in the country for 20
years. It was perhaps one of the hardest
places to get to to provide uh security
to get aid to to have uh you know a
system of governance the Taliban uh
flourished in some of these uh areas and
so for this now to happen to these
people who just don't seem to be able to
get a break natural disaster after
natural disaster the country collapsing
to the uh Taliban government and regime
again after the um US and allied forces
controlled the country for for 20 years
and the Afghan government collapsing and
then now to see the lack of resources.
It is basically helicopters Gareth going
to this remote area and trying to
evacuate people out because aid agencies
can't get there. Um the humanitarians
can't seem to get there. There were
there was flooding in the area just a
couple of days before the earthquake
struck. landslides. So, it's just a
miserable situation for so many of these
people. And I have to remind our viewers
as well um that it is the women and
girls of Afghanistan who continually
suffer the most. So, even in this
situation, Gareth, you'll find that you
know the death toll and the number of
women and girls who were killed will
suddenly spike in a few days time. And
that's because they stay back or they
don't try and seek medical assistance
first. there aren't any female rescuers
on the ground or aid workers on the
ground assisting them because um many of
the Afghan female aid workers have been
banned from operating and doctors have
been banned from operating in these
places and across the country. So you'll
suddenly see like so many other natural
disasters the number of women and girls
impacted will suddenly rise.
>> It's telling from this footage that
we're playing. I don't think I yet ya or
I've seen a single woman or girl in any
of this footage. Kind of testament to to
the point you're making and and the
position that the Taliban have put women
and girls in in in in Afghan society
since 2021. We we also spoke earlier to
a to a UNICEF spokesperson in Kabell who
kind of talked around the challenges of
of supporting people in these regions
and also the limitations of the Afghan
government and he was quoting a figure
of just four helicopters currently being
used to to take aid and carry out those
recovery missions. What what capacity
and how limited is it do do the
authorities really have? And and you
know it strikes me it's worth
remembering this is the third major
quake in in just four years.
>> Yeah. Absolutely. And in each of those
major quakes um Gareth, you know, over a
thousand people were killed. So, no
surprises with the death toll uh at the
moment. I can see some of the footage
coming in of the children that you're
seeing um on one of the um national um
broadcasters in the country, Tolo, um
News where we've gotten this footage and
you can see some of those children being
evacuated on the the helicopters. But,
as you say, I mean, the capacity is so
limited already. This is a nation that
after the the fall of the Afghan
government and the evacuation um of
thousands, tens of thousands of people
from the country and and and when the US
and other forces left the country, they
said to the Taliban, "Fine, you want to
overrun the country, here it is. You run
it now and we will have nothing to do
with you. You will be a pariah state."
And so over the course of the last four
years since August 2021 and and don't
forget we've marked we've just marked uh
the takeover of the the Taliban um of
Afghanistan they have faced sanctions
because of their human rights abuses of
the Afghan people especially on women
and girls pushing women and girls out of
um you know the society as a whole not
allowing girls to go to school not
allowing women to go to university and
it's in these moment moments that the
Taliban will suddenly realize that my
gosh, we need the support of the
international community. We need aid aid
agencies to come here. I was speaking to
Taliban leaders yesterday who were
making that plea to me. They were
saying, you know, we need to get the
voice of these poor people stuck in
these mud huts in in these remote areas.
And you know, I've spoken to aid
agencies who say to me, it's like going
back to the sixth or seventh century.
That is how underdeveloped some of these
areas are because they face fighting for
the longest time and now you know really
difficult to to get to and the
international community has more or less
said to the 40 million Afghans this is
the the the government now of the
country you know we don't believe in the
values that they're imposing on you and
therefore we are imposing sanctions and
and and the country is now left with
with Nothing
>> y joining us live this morning.