• Many families still remain without shelter
• WHO says most casualties are women and children

HERAT: Afghan rescue workers scrambled to pull survivors and bodies from beneath the rubble on Monday, two days after the deadliest earthquakes in years hit the northwestern city of Herat and surrounding villages.

The Taliban administration said at least 2,400 people had been killed and many more injured in the quakes, which were among the world’s deadliest this year after tremors in Turkiye and Syria, in which an estimated 50,000 people were killed.

Periodic aftershocks continued to shake the affected areas on Monday, officials said, forcing already scared people out of their homes.

Neighbours Pakistan and Iran have offered to send rescue workers and humanitarian aid, while China’s Red Cross Society offered cash relief. A technical team from Iran has arrived in the area, Mullah Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disaster Management, said during a press conference.

“I ask all countries, to help us in this crucial time,” said Sayeeq. He said people were trapped under rubble in two villages and teams were working to free them.

The spokesman for Herat’s governor, Nissar Ahmad Elyias, said more than a dozen villages around Herat had been hit.

Need for shelter

Mullah Sayeeq said that aside from those killed and injured, thousands had been affected with 20 villages — made up of over 1,900 houses of around 10,000 people — destroyed. Many survivors remained under the open sky as medical and food aid reached them.

The WHO head of emergency response, Alaa AbouZeid, said there was a huge need for shelter as temperatures drop. “We have cases who receive treatment and should go back home, but, unfortunately, they do not have (a home to go back to),” he said, adding that people were even afraid to enter partially damaged homes.

The WHO said more than 11,000 people had been affected from 1,655 families, whilst the UN said “100 per cent” of homes in 11 villages were totally destroyed.

“Two-thirds of those with severe injuries who are admitted in the hospital I have seen yesterday are children and women,” Dr AbouZeid said.

He also warned that financing the humanitarian operations remained critical, with global attention and funding shifting away from Afghanistan.

PM Kakar saddened

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Monday expressed deep sorrow over the loss of precious lives and property in the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan.

“Our hearts go out to the affected communities. We stand in solidarity with the Afghans during this difficult time. I have instructed the National Disaster Manag­ement Authority (NDMA) to send maximum support to the affected,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

He said the Afghan government had specifically asked for sending a medical team, a field hospital, 50 tents and 500 blankets. “On my instructions, in addition to the relief goods, all the requested items are being dispatched in the afternoon today (Monday), with more relief goods to follow,” he added.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2023