IRIN
KYRGYZSTAN: First consignment of aid dispatched to quake victims
6 October 2008


BISHKEK, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - An earthquake that jolted southern 
Kyrgyzstan on the evening of 5 October killed at least 70 people and 
destroyed over 100 houses in a remote village, according to officials. 
An initial aid delivery has been dispatched.

Kanat Abdurakhmatov, head of the Kyrgyz Seismology Institute, told IRIN 
in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, the epicentre "was located in a 
mountainous and unpopulated part of Tajikistan. But the main impact of 
the disaster was in the adjacent Alai District of Kyrgyzstan," 
Abdurahmatov said.

The US Geological Survey website reported the magnitude of the 
earthquake as 6.6 on the Richter Scale 
[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008xuay.php].

The Kyrgyz Ministry of Emergencies said the village of Nura in Alai 
District was the worst affected: "Based on our preliminary assessments 
70 people were killed and 60 need urgent evacuation for medical 
treatment in Nura village alone," Turatbek Junushaliev, Kyrgyz deputy 
emergencies' minister, told IRIN.

He said 128 houses and 70 percent of the village's infrastructure had 
been completely destroyed. "There is no electricity or water there. In 
some places the road leading to the village has been destroyed," 
Junushaliev said.

Nura village is near the Kyrgyz-Chinese border. Its 940 inhabitants 
lived in 211 houses, the ministry said, adding that over half the 
residential buildings were destroyed by the quake.

Aid efforts

The Ministry of Emergencies held an urgent meeting of REACT group 
members, comprising donor bodies and local and international 
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Bishkek on 6 October to provide 
them with the latest information.

It requested urgent and mid-term assistance from international 
organisations and donors to mitigate the consequences of the disaster: 
"We need generators, food items, warm clothing, blankets and personal 
hygiene kits," Junushaliev said.

Night-time temperatures in the area in autumn and winter drop up to 
minus 25 degrees Centigrade, Ministry of Emergencies' experts said.

Tents, tarpaulins and other items are required to set up a temporary 
camp for 600 families as an immediate measure, and construction 
materials are needed to build new homes for survivors who have been made 
homeless by the disaster.

Neal Walker, the UN resident coordinator, said UN agencies in 
Kyrgyzstan, along with the Kyrgyz Red Crescent, and the ACTED Kyrgyzstan 
NGO had sent their teams, in cooperation with the ministry, to the 
affected area to conduct a needs assessment.

"We can mobilise the UN warehouse in Osh [city near Uzbek border] where 
our partners - the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the World Health 
Organization (WHO), and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) - have supplies 
to provide relief aid to earthquake-affected people," Walker said.

Roza Shaiakhmetova, general secretary of the Kyrgyz Red Crescent 
Society, said they had sent initial aid immediately after they received 
information about the disaster. "We sent with the Emergencies Ministry 
convoy 30 tents, heaters, winter jackets for adults and children and 
drinking water supplies," Shaiakhmetova said.

"We've appealed to our sister agencies requesting humanitarian aid 
assistance for the affected," she added.

The Russian government has also promised humanitarian aid.

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