Search for survivors as death toll from Afghanistan quake mounts

Rescue teams are searching for those trapped under the debris two days after deadly, magnitude 6.3 earthquakes rattled the northwestern city of Herat and its surroundings, killing thousands of people.

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Monday that at least 2,400 people were killed and many more injured in one of the world’s deadliest quakes this year.

“The operation is still going on, still some people are being pulled out of the rubble,” the spokesman of Heart’s governor, Nissar Ahmad Elyias, told Reuters, adding that more than a dozen villages around Herat were also affected.

Afghanistan’s neighbors including Pakistan and Iran have offered to send rescue workers and humanitarian aid, while China’s Red Cross Society offered cash relief aid.

“Many people have come from far-flung districts to get people out from the rubble,” said Khalid, 32, at Kashkak in Zindajan district 30 kilometers northwest of Herat city, capital of the same-named province.

“Everyone is busy searching for bodies everywhere, we don’t know if there are others as well under the debris.”

“Many of our family members have been martyred, including one of my sons, and my other son is also injured,” Herat resident Mir Ahmed told Reuters at a hospital that was treating many survivors.

“Most of the people are under the rubble.”

Magnitude 6.3 quake in west Afghanistan leaves multiple casualties

A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake has hit western Afghanistan, leaving at least 15 people dead and scores injured, officials say.

Death tolls often rise when information comes in from more remote parts of a country where decades of war have left infrastructure in a shambles, and relief and rescue operations difficult to organize.

According to a statement by the UN Humanitarian Office all the homes in the Zindajan district in Herat were destroyed.

As winter draws in the mountainous region with cold winters, providing food, clothing, and shelter for the disaster-hit Afghans will be a major challenge for the cash-strapped government.

Afghanistan had already been suffering from a dire humanitarian crisis. Joe Biden administration has frozen the assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank since the withdrawal of its occupation forces from the country in August 2021.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have since suspended activities in the war-ravaged country.

Many of the US allies and Western governments have also largely suspended their financial assistance to Afghanistan since the US troop withdrawal and the Taliban takeover.

The quake-hit Herat province, which is home to 1.9 million people, has also been hit by drought, affecting produce in an area renowned for top-quality abundant harvest.

Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountain range, which is linked to the Pamir Mountains and the Himalayas, lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates and is prone to frequent earthquakes.

A 5.9-magnitude earthquake in the impoverished province of Paktika left more than 1,000 people dead and tens of thousands homeless last June.

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