Tears of a child as Nepalis cremate quake dead

Survivors of a recent earthquake sit in front of a damaged house in Chiuri village at Jajarkot district on November 5, 2023. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)

The wails of eight-year-old Prem Kala Kami echoed across her Nepali village on Sunday, as the shroud-wrapped bodies of her parents and two of her brothers lay beside her awaiting cremation.

The remote village of Chiuri was one of the worst-hit places when a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck western Nepal late Friday.

It has only about 40 houses, all of them now reduced to rubble or heavily damaged, and 13 of its residents died.

Sitting under a tarpaulin shelter with relatives and neighbours mourning the loss, Prem Kala’s uncle held her as she wept, a fresh white bandage wrapped around her finger.

“After the quake we rushed to their house to rescue them but only found bodies,” her uncle Kalpali BK told AFP — his surname…