Ahmadiyya Muslims join relief efforts in quake-hit Kumamoto region of Japan

Muslims from one of Japan’s oldest Muslim Community have joined relief activities following two deadly quakes that hit southern Japan.

On Saturday a 7.3 magnitude quake shook the city of Kumamoto, which had previously been hit by a magnitude-6.4 quake on Thursday night. According to local media reports over 9 people died in the first earthquake, and 33 in the second. Sources says at least 150,000 people have been displaced and are in need of accommodation and food.

Members from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have concentrated their initial relief efforts on the area of Mashiki which has been hardest-hit by the quakes. Volunteers from the community have been serving milk tea and hot meals to quake victims in emergency shelters.

In Mashiki thousands of people have been forced to live in shelters following the quakes, lack of food and water is prevalent as roads have been buried by landslides caused by aftershocks.

In the past Ahmadiyya Muslim Community organized relief efforts during the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Chuets Nigata earthquake in Nigata and also during the great eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011.