shock and despair after destroyed whole villages

Just before midnight on Sunday, Matriula Shahab woke up to find her house in the remote Kunar province in Afghanistan.

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake has hit Eastern Afghanistan, leaving at least 800 people killed, according to the UN.

Although the epicenter of the earthquake was 16 km away, the whole village of Shahab Assadabad was shaking. The 23 family members who live with it ran out of their bedrooms when they were afraid that the walls would fall on them and remain awake all night in their garden. “We were all afraid,” he says.

The areas that are the most in the earthquake were the provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar, but it felt as far as Kabul and in the neighboring capital of Pakistan Islamabad.

When the day breaks, Matial – who is a freelance journalist and human rights activist – expelled from his home to try to reach the remote mountain zone in the epicenter of the earthquake.

He says he had to get out of his car and walk for two hours before arriving at the worst affected villages, as there were rocks on the road.

He arrived in the village of Andardlachak to find several young children who are treated by medics on the street. A pair of young children lay on a stretcher with bruises on the chest and faces.

Other children were wrapped in white sheets. About 79 people died alone in this village.

“I saw many dead bodies,” Matiwla tells the BBC. “I felt the consequences 17 times.”

Matiala has helped the locals dig graves for many people who have died.

“The villages I visited were destroyed,” he says. A man told Shabab that his wife and four children had died. But most were too shocked to talk.

“People’s faces were covered with dust and there was silence,” he said. “They were like robots – no one could talk about it.”

Due to the blocked roads, Taliban state rescue operations rely on helicopters to reach the mountain villages. But the remote, mountain terrain means that some places remain inaccessible as long as there are reports of people who die under the ruins while expecting rescue.

Matiullah says volunteers are trying to save people in a trap and have seen two women be drawn from a destroyed house.

“They came out, injured them and are now in the hospital,” he says. He was not allowed to take pictures of the rescue operation as the Taliban did not allow pictures of women.

Many residents are now sleeping outdoors and needing tents, Matyula adds.

Another resident in Kunar’s Sokai neighborhood, Ezatula Safi, says part of his house has collapsed in the earthquake.

“I woke up to the screams of children, women and animals,” he told the BBC.

“The earthquake was intense and the night felt like a small apocalypse. Strong winds followed the trembling, falling light rain. My children sticking to me and crying with fear. The dust filled the air.

“The mobile network descended immediately. We couldn’t contact relatives. With the damaged house and without electricity, we relied on the light from our phones.”

He says government helicopters arrived in the morning and transferred the wounded from the mountains down to the main highway Kunar, where they were transferred from vehicles to clinics.

“There is a heavy atmosphere of grief here,” Ezatula notes.

“(Electricity is out, the markets remained closed throughout the day. Some areas are still inaccessible – remote villages at five to six hours in the mountains.”

Additional reporting by Iftiich Khan