Two years have passed marking a powerful earthquake that struck northern Pakistan, claiming more than 79,000 lives. Today, many of the survivors remain in limbo, trapped between cities their government refuse to rebuild, and those that haven’t been constructed yet. Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reports from Balakot, one of the hardest hit communities in the northwest Frontier province.
They are now being called the elderly orphans - senior citizens who lost entire families in the earthquake that hit southwest China last month.
Most relied on their sons, daughter or grandchildren to look after them.
And now many do not have a home to return to.
Al Jazeera’s David Hawkins reports.
The earthquake in China cause more than just physical damage and a huge economic impact on China, its economic effects are being felt as far away as neighbouring India. Al Jazeera’s Prithvee Banerjii reports on the small traders in India who are badly hit due to scarcity of silk thread following the recent earthquake.
In last month’s earthquake in central China, thousands of children were killed when their school buildings collapsed.
Now grieving parents are demanding answers from authorities as to why the buildings collapsed so easily.
In the town of Du Jiang Yan, nearly 300 children were killed when their classrooms collapsed.
But when Al Jazeera’s David Hawkins went there, he found local authorities reluctant to allow the story be told.
Authorities now put the official death toll from the Sichuan earthquake in China at more than 60,000 and fear it could reach 80,000.
Al Jazeera spoke with one of the first soldiers to arrive on the scene in Dujiangyan, near the quake’s epicentre.
Here’s his account of the relief operation.