Men dug through rubble with hands and shovels on Sunday in a desperate attempt to rescue victims of a series of earthquakes that rocked western Afghanistan, killing more than 2,000 people.
Entire villages have been destroyed, bodies buried under collapsed houses and the population is waiting for help, not even having shovels to rescue those still trapped.
Both the living and the dead, the victims lay beneath the rubble, their faces smeared with dust.
“Most people were in shock … some couldn’t even speak, but others couldn’t stop crying and screaming,” Omid Haqjoo, a photographer who visited four villages on Sunday, told The Associated Press by phone from Afghanistan’s fourth-largest city , Herat.
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck on Saturday in a densely populated area near Herat. Strong aftershocks followed.
A Taliban spokesman gave a death toll that, if confirmed, will make this earthquake one of the country’s deadliest in two decades.
An earthquake in June 2022 in a rugged mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan killed at least 1,000 people and caused houses made of stone and clay to collapse.
People in Herat rescued a baby trapped up to his neck in the remains of a collapsed building. A hand was seen caressing the baby’s torso as rescuers carried the girl out. Rescuers said she was the little girl’s mother. It was unclear whether the mother survived. The video was posted online and reviewed by The Associated Press.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter of the earthquake was 25 miles northwest of the city of Herat. Three very strong aftershocks of magnitude 6.3 were reported; 5.9 and 5.5 as well as minor shocks.
At a time when the world is hesitant to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and in light of the new conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Afghanistan has not received immediate international assistance. Almost 36 hours after the first earthquake in Herat province, no plane has arrived.
Aid agencies have appealed to the international community to help with the disaster, but very few countries have offered support, including neighboring China and Pakistan.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the lack of rescue teams could increase the number of victims as they become trapped and cannot be removed.
“There is not much capacity for disaster management and what little there is is not enough for this number of people,” said Salma Ben Aissa, director of the committee in Afghanistan. “The number (of deaths) is increasing every hour.”
Due to a lack of resources in the region, the injured do not receive the necessary care and ultimately die. The risk increases due to lack of food, shelter and clean water.
A colleague of Ben Aissa, Jawed Niamati, said the city of Herat was empty. People are sleeping outdoors, on streets and in parks because they fear further earthquakes. At night, temperatures hover around 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), he added.