Afghanistan experienced its deadliest earthquake in years on Saturday, October 7. The death toll from the earthquake is estimated to be at least 2,400 people, with this number expected to rise. According to Ministry of Disasters spokesperson Janan Sayiq, close to 10,000 people have been injured and many still remain trapped under the rubble. He also reported that over 1,320 houses were destroyed or damaged in affected areas in the remote western provinces of the country.
The US Geological Survey stated that the earthquake with magnitude 6.3 hit around 35km northwest of the city of Herat. Locals in the western Badghis, Herat, and Farah provinces reported experiencing several tremors and aftershocks which inflicted massive damage to mud-brick houses, roads and livestock, besides causing human casualties.
According to the officials of the Ministry of Disaster Management, the number of martyrs due to the earthquake in Herat has exceeded 2,500. Aid teams are working in the area. The affected people in the area still needs shelter and food.#HeratEarthQuake #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/Lu2wgvNYUq
— Khalid Zadran (@khalidzadran01) October 8, 2023
Footage coming out from Herat province showed graphic images of dead bodies lying amid debris with locals digging through the rubble with bare hands and shovels to retrieve those trapped. Videos shared on social media show people crying in extreme shock after their entire families were killed in the tragedy.
#Afghanistan has just been hit by a devastating earthquake, second one in two months, killing and injuring hundreds of people.
Our thoughts are with the families who have lost their loved ones and homes across the Western region. pic.twitter.com/zi9gsx2dSC
— World Food Programme in Afghanistan (@WFP_Afghanistan) October 8, 2023
A large number of people have been rendered homeless in Herat province’s Zinda Jan and Ghoryan districts, Tolo News reported. Residents of Naib Rafi village in Zinda Jan reported that 80% of the people living there had died in the quake. The village that was once home to 350 families has been reduced to rubble. At least 14 villages in the district have seen major devastation.
Mohammad, a shepherd, said he lost eight members of his family: “My father, mother, sisters and brothers as well as my sister with her children, all of them were here (inside the house). I don’t know the rest and I was shepherding,” he told Tolo News.
The total extent of the damage from the quake is yet to be ascertained and the number of dead may increase in the coming days. Hospitals of Herat city are packed with the injured and the administration has arranged beds outside the hospital premises to treat victims.
Irfanullah Sharafzai of the Afghan Red Crescent Society said that seven teams had been dispatched to the affected areas for rescue operations. Several international agencies including UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have also sent their teams to support the rescue and relief works.
Save the Children described the scale of the damage as “horrific” with thousands of people without proper shelter, food, healthcare, and drinking water.
40-year-old Fatima, whose entire family was shifted to a hospital in Herat, lamented that there is nothing left in her village. “We are all finished, there is nothing left behind,” she told AFP.
In June 2022, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake had triggered an emergency in southeastern Afghanistan at a time when millions were already in need of humanitarian assistance. Over 1,000 people had lost their lives then.
Relief efforts in the country are severely restricted due to the massive cuts in international aid which took place after the Taliban took over on August 15, 2021, impacting both the country’s GDP and overall socioeconomic indicators of the population. After the Taliban takeover, the US announced that it freeze Afghanistan’s funds being held on US soil with the EU following suit, and suspending billions in development and emergency assistance for healthcare, agriculture, and law enforcement in Afghanistan. Just one year after, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 25 million Afghans are living in poverty. A mid-year REACH assessment revealed that total monthly incomes have declined by 15% since 2021. At the same time, the proportion of households in debt has increased from 73% in 2021 to 82% in 2022.
