A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, following a similar earthquake that struck the region days ago.
The USGS later said that a strong aftershock of 5.5 magnitude occurred 20 minutes after Sunday’s quake, affecting the area 33km north-northwest of Herat at a depth of 10km.
This earthquake is the most recent to hit in an area where several shocks this month have destroyed entire communities and claimed over 1,000 lives.
According to the USGS, the quake hit Herat City — the capital of the western province of the same name — at 0336 GMT.
The same area of Herat was rocked by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake and eight strong aftershocks on October 7 (Saturday), which resulted in the collapse of large tracts of rural dwellings, the deaths of over 1,000 people, and hundreds more injuries, AFP reported.
Days later, with thousands of terrified residents left without shelter and volunteers digging for survivors, another tremor of the same intensity killed one person and injured 130 others. Over 90% of those killed in the quakes were women and children, UNICEF said on Wednesday.
“Women and children are often at home, tending to the household and caring for children, so when structures collapse, they are the most at risk,” the agency´s Herat-based field officer Siddig Ibrahim said.
At least six villages in the rural Zinda Jan district have been completely destroyed and more than 12,000 people affected by the tremors, the United Nations said.
Crises mount in Afghanistan
Thousands of residents are already living in terror of aftershocks around the ruins of homes where entire families were wiped out in an instant.
Mohammad Naeem, a 40-year-old resident revealed that he lost 12 relatives, including his mother, after Saturday’s earthquakes, saying: “We can’t live here anymore. You can see, our family got martyred here. How could we live here?”
Earthquakes are frequent in Afghanistan and in the west and centre of the country and are mostly caused by the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates jutting against each other.
Providing shelter on a large scale will be a challenge for Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, who seized power in August 2021, and have fractious relations with international aid organisations.
“That area is very cold, staying there after the evening is very difficult,” said public health minister Qalandar Ebad. “We know they could live there in tents for one month, but more than that would probably be very difficult.”
Rural Afghanistan’s homes are predominantly made of mud and wooden supports, lacking steel or concrete reinforcement.
This vulnerability, coupled with multi-generational extended families living under the same roof, has led to a severe humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by the withdrawal of foreign aid following the Taliban’s return to power.
— Additional input from AFP