2023-10-15 16:50:19
A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the province of Herat, in northwest Afghanistan, on Sunday, causing at least two deaths and 154 injuries in this region where a devastating earthquake had killed more than a thousand people. victims a week earlier. The shallow earthquake occurred at 8:06 a.m. local time with an epicenter 33 km from the city of Herat, according to the American Geophysics Institute (USGS). Several aftershocks, of magnitude 5.4, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4, followed.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said two deaths and 154 injuries were recorded at Herat regional hospital, where patients were transported on stretchers and treated outside under makeshift shelters.
“Those who have nowhere to go spend the night on the roads and in parks”
“The situation is very critical,” MSF program head in Afghanistan Yahya Kalilah told AFP. “From a psychological point of view, people are panicked and traumatized.” “People don’t feel safe. I can assure you 100% that no one will sleep at home,” added Yahya Kalilah. National disaster management authorities said they were still assessing the extent of the destruction.
Haris Aryan, a resident of Herat, sent his family south to Farah province. “Many people, all those who have family or accommodation in neighboring provinces, have fled,” he told AFP. “Those who have nowhere to go spend the night on the roads and in parks,” according to this resident.
According to an AFP journalist in Herat, most residents continue to sleep outside a week after a deadly earthquake, fearing further tremors. But some returned to their homes for the night. “The residents of Herat are panicked and scared,” explains 27-year-old trader Hamid Nizami. “Thank Allah, it happened during the day and people were awake.”
The country hit by several consecutive earthquakes
MSF’s Yahya Kalilah predicted losses would be limited because residents in areas worst hit by October’s previous earthquakes are already living outdoors after their homes were destroyed.
On October 7, entire villages in the Herat region were destroyed in a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The Taliban government estimated the death toll at more than a thousand. On Saturday evening, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported nearly 1,400 deaths from this earthquake.
Another major earthquake on October 11, whose epicenter was detected around 30 km north of Herat, created panic in a traumatized population and left at least one dead and around a hundred injured. The tremors were followed by storms which damaged the tents sheltering the survivors.
Nearly 20,000 people were affected by the successive earthquakes, the WHO said, with most of the victims being women and children. 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.
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