More than 2,100 people are confirmed dead in the landslide that buried a remote mountain village in northern Afghanistan, government officials said on Saturday.
Rescue teams did not give up the search for the villagers after the Friday landslide in the Badakhshan province village. But hope of finding survivors dwindled after hours of digging through mud with rudimentary tools. Officials are now focusing on the nearly 4,000 people that are now displaced, Reuters reported.
"More than 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead," Naweed Forotan, spokesman for the Badakhshan province governor, told Reuters.
The deadly landslide was brought on by continuous heavy rainfall that cased a hill to collapse, covering the entire village. Other villages in the area have been evacuated out of fear of another hillside collapse.
"Seven members of my family were here, four or five of them were killed...I am also half alive, what can I do?" and elderly woman told Reuters.
A unit of NATO troops was placed on standby to aid in the search. But the Afghan government never asked for their assistance.
"I call on the government to come and help our people, to take the bodies out," a middle-aged man who lived in the village told Reuters.
"We managed to take out only 10-15 people, the rest of our villagers here are trapped."
The United Nations said it is helping the 4,000 that were displaced either by the landslide or from being evacuated. Basic provisions are needed most, including water, food and shelter, Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan told Reuters.
President Barack Obama said the U.S., which currently has some 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, would be there if help is needed.
"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," Obama said according to Reuters.
