A massive earthquake has struck Afghanistan, causing widespread destruction in the Herat province and claiming the lives of more than 1,000 people.
The earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, occurred on a Saturday morning, leaving entire villages in ruins.
Rescue teams are working tirelessly to find survivors amidst the rubble.
They are using shovels and their bare hands to search for more than 500 individuals who are still missing.
However, due to blocked roads and communication disruptions, aid efforts only began to reach the affected areas on Monday.
There are concerns that the death toll may continue to rise as more information becomes available.
The earthquake struck Zindajan, a remote rural district located about 40km (25 miles) from Herat city.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “100% of homes are estimated to have been completely destroyed” in this area.
Images from the affected villages reveal that many houses, which were not built to withstand such a powerful quake, have been reduced to rubble.
Nek Mohammad, a resident of the region, described the scene: “We came home and saw there was nothing left.
Everything had turned to mud.
We started to dig with shovels and whatever we had to rescue women and children from the rubble.”
The Taliban government and aid organizations initially faced challenges in assessing the extent of the disaster and determining the number of people missing.
Remote villages like these often lack population records, and the region is home to communities displaced by conflict and drought, making it difficult to determine the exact number of residents.
Local hospitals, already ill-equipped, are struggling to care for over 1,600 injured individuals.
Many of the injured have been sent to the Herat Regional Hospital, where Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been providing assistance since the earthquake.
Prue Coakley, the acting country representative for MSF in Afghanistan, mentioned, “Fortunately, most of the patients arriving are non-emergency cases.
However, many of them do not have homes to return to, that is why many of them are remaining in the hospital while authorities look for alternative places for them to stay.”
The UN reports that a significant number of those receiving treatment are women and children, with doctors confirming that women and children also account for many of the casualties.
The Taliban government has urgently called for assistance, including food, clean water, medicine, clothing, and shelter, for the earthquake survivors.
Various aid agencies, including the Afghan Red Cross Society, MSF, World Food Programme, and Unicef, have mobilized help, but the country remains in dire need of additional support.
Afghanistan has been grappling with an economic crisis since the Taliban took control in 2021, leading to the suspension of aid directly to the government. Few countries have pledged financial assistance in the wake of this devastating earthquake.
China’s Red Cross Society has offered $200,000 (£164,220) in emergency cash aid while neighboring Pakistan has expressed its willingness to provide support for the recovery efforts.
Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which is located near the convergence of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
In June of the previous year, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the province of Paktika, resulting in the loss of more than 1,000 lives and leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.
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