Meanwhile, the humanitarian organization Care was concerned about women and girls in the affected regions. “Their freedom was already significantly restricted and they therefore have limited access to essential, life-saving services,” said Reshma Azmi, deputy country director at Care Afghanistan. The Taliban have been back in power in Afghanistan for more than two years. The country is politically isolated internationally due to its repressive policies, which mainly discriminate against women and girls. Two-thirds of the victims of Afghanistan’s recent earthquakes who were hospitalized with serious injuries are women and children, the head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency response in the country said on Monday.
On Saturday morning, several earthquakes frightened residents of the Afghan border province of Herat, near Iran. In just a few hours, the ground shook nine times and more than a dozen villages were largely destroyed. Military and rescue services rushed to the disaster areas. According to the US Earthquake Observatory (USGS), the two strongest earthquakes were magnitude 6.3. “The earthquake occurred at around 11am, when the men were not yet in their homes, so most of the injured and dead are women and children who were in their homes at the time,” WHO’s Alaa Abou-Zeid said in an interview by video to Portal. . Abou-Zeid reported that it was “devastating” to see the number of children in critical condition in the hospital.
The civil protection agency NDMA put the number of deaths on Sunday at more than 2,400, while the UN emergency relief office, OCHA, spoke of more than 1,000 deaths. An NDMA spokesperson expressed concern on Monday that the number of casualties could rise further as the situation was still unclear. 20 villages and around 2,000 homes were completely destroyed. In addition to numerous rescue teams, a high-ranking Taliban delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar also arrived in the earthquake zones.
The United Nations released five million dollars (4.7 million euros) in emergency aid and, after assessing needs, announced an appeal for donations soon. Thus, more than 11,000 people were affected by the earthquake.
The worst destruction occurred in the Sindajan district, northwest of Herat. Broadcaster Tolonews reported that 80% of the population of a single village died. A shepherd told the station that he was herding sheep outside the village during the earthquake. When he returned, eight members of his family were dead. “My father, my mother, my brothers and sisters with their children were all here,” he said.
Initially, no injuries were reported from Monday’s new earthquake. A Herat emergency room doctor said the earthquake was “quite intense.” People are in shock and psychological stress is high.
Earthquakes bring back memories of last summer’s devastating catastrophe, when more than 1,000 people died in a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in the east of the country. After decades of conflict, many villages with simple buildings are ill-equipped to deal with earthquakes. But serious natural disasters occur repeatedly in the region, especially in the Hindu Kush, where the Indian and Eurasian plates meet.
(SERVICE – Caritas Austria donation account: Erste Bank: IBAN AT23 2011 1000 0123 4560, reference “Earthquake Afghanistan”. More information online at https://caritas.at/erdbeben-afghanistan. World Vision Austria donation account: Erste Bank , IBAN: AT22 2011 1800 8008 1800, purpose “Disaster Relief”. More information online at www.worldvision.at/katastrophenhilfe/. Austrian Committee donation account for UNICEF: AT46 6000 0000 0151 6500. More at https:// unicef.at /hilfsprojekte- Worldwide/hilfsprojekte-in-asien/unicef-in-afghanistan/ or https://go.apa.at/rkQBBVZK CARE Austria donation account: IBAN AT77 6000 0000 0123 6000 https://care. at/checkout/ spendare- katastrophenhilfe/Diakonie Disaster Aid: IBAN AT85 2011 1287 1196 6333 | Password for donation: Earthquake Emergency Aid Afghanistan www.diakonie.at/afghanistan-erdbeben-nothilfe)