There is definitely no respite. A new earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck western Afghanistan on Wednesday, October 11, according to the American Seismological Service (USGS), following Saturday’s earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people in the same region. The earthquake struck at around 5:10 a.m. local time (2:40 a.m. BST) at a shallow depth and had its epicenter about 29 kilometers north of the city of Herat, the USGS said.
The impact of this new earthquake is not yet clearly understood, while thousands of people are already homeless after their homes were destroyed on Saturday by the first earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, followed by eight responses. No new deaths were reported.
Local and national officials gave conflicting figures about the number of dead and injured in Saturday’s quake, but the Emergency Management Ministry said 2,053 people had died.
“We cannot give exact figures on the dead and injured as these are evolving,” said ministry spokesman Mullah Janan Sayeq.
Also read: Earthquake in Afghanistan: The search continues, but the hope of finding survivors is dwindling
Aid has reached remote villages
On Tuesday, the United Nations tallied a toll of nearly 1,300 dead and nearly 500 missing, most of whom were women. The organization estimates that more than 12,000 people, members of 1,700 families, have been affected and that “100 percent” of homes have been destroyed in 11 villages in the rural district of Zendeh Jan, about 30 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat, capital of the province of the same name .
Trucks full of food, water and blankets reached remote villages where blue tents were pitched amid the ruins. “There are families in which no one lives anymore,” sighs Ali Mohammad, 50, about the village of Nayeb Rafi, where two thousand families used to live. “There is no one left, no woman, no child, no one. »
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“There is not a single house left, not even a room where we can stay,” Mohammad Naeem, 40, who lost 12 members of his family, including his mother, told Agence France-Presse.
The injured have nowhere to go
In Herat, 30 kilometers southeast of the epicenter, the Doctors Without Borders association emphasizes that injured people who have to leave the hospital have nowhere to go. Providing protection on a large scale as winter approaches will be a challenge for the Afghan Taliban authorities, who took power in August 2021 and have strained relations with international aid agencies.
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Most houses in rural Afghanistan are made of mud and built around wooden support posts, with little steel or concrete reinforcement. Large, multi-generational families tend to live under one roof, meaning major earthquakes can devastate communities.
Afghanistan is already suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis, with foreign aid largely halted following the Taliban’s return to power. Around 1.9 million people live in Herat province on the border with Iran and their rural communities are suffering from years of drought.
Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, but Saturday saw the worst quake in the poor, war-ravaged country in more than 25 years. In June 2022, an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale in the poor province of Paktika (southeast) left more than a thousand dead and tens of thousands homeless.