a new earthquake hits the Herat region, a week after the deadly earthquake

2023-10-15 08:39:38

A new earthquake, measuring 6.3, struck the Herat region, in the northwest of Afghanistan, on Sunday October 15, after several tremors since the beginning of the month in this region, including a devastating earthquake which caused more than a thousand deaths.

The shallow earthquake occurred Sunday morning at 8:06 a.m. local time (5:06 a.m. in Paris) with an epicenter 33 kilometers from the city of Herat, according to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS). A 5.5 magnitude aftershock was recorded twenty minutes later.

On October 7, entire villages were destroyed by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks. Another major earthquake on October 11, whose epicenter was detected around 30 kilometers north of Herat, created panic in a traumatized population and left at least one dead and around a hundred injured.

Homes reduced to dust

The victims of the first earthquake, at the beginning of October, were 90% women and children, Unicef ​​said on Wednesday. “Women are often at home, taking care of household chores and children. So when a structure collapses, they are most exposed.”recalled Siddig Ibrahim, an official of the UN agency in Herat.

At least six villages in Zendeh Jan district were completely destroyed and more than 12,000 people affected by the earthquakes, according to the United Nations.

Since the tremors, thousands of people in the province have been sleeping outside, in cars, gardens or tents, their homes having been reduced to dust. But in this region where the nights are very cold, refugees will not be able to stay in tents for more than a month, humanitarians warn.

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Afghanistan is already suffering from a serious humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021. Providing shelter in large quantities, as winter approaches, will be a challenge for the Taliban authorities, who have tense relations with international aid organizations.

Afghanistan frequently experiences earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In June 2022, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake left more than a thousand dead and tens of thousands homeless in the poor province of Paktika (South-East).

The World with AFP