More than 2,000 people died in a violent earthquake which struck western Afghanistan on Saturday, causing enormous damage, according to a new official report released on Sunday.
The 6.3 magnitude earthquake, which struck areas 30 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat on Saturday, was followed by eight strong aftershocks.
“Unfortunately, the number of victims is very high. The death toll stands at more than 2,000,” Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, told AFP. “We are waiting to see the final figures,” he continued.
In the village of Sarboland in the Zinda Jan district, dozens of houses were destroyed, an AFP journalist noted at nightfall on Saturday.
Men were clearing rubble while women and children waited outside, among the debris.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 600 houses were destroyed or partially damaged in at least twelve villages in Herat province. In total, 4,200 people were affected in one way or another by the earthquake, according to the same source.
“From the first shock, all the houses collapsed,” says Bashir Ahmad, 42. “Those who were inside the houses were buried. There are families we have no news about,” he adds.
“Abandoned with our martyrs”
Nek Mohammad was at work when the first tremor hit Afghanistan around 11:00 a.m. local time (6:30 a.m. GMT).
“We came home and found there was nothing left. Everything had become sand,” he explains, adding that around 30 bodies were found.
“At the moment we have nothing. No blankets or anything else. We are abandoned with our martyrs,” adds this 32-year-old man.
On Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that “the number of casualties is expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue.”
In Herat, considered the cultural capital of Afghanistan, many residents and traders fled buildings at the first tremor.
Herat province, which has a population of 1.9 million according to World Bank data, has also been hit by drought for years, crippling many already struggling farming communities.
Afghanistan frequently experiences earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, close to where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
A 5.9 magnitude earthquake, the deadliest to date in Afghanistan in nearly 25 years, left more than a thousand dead and tens of thousands homeless in the poor province of Paktika ( southeast), in June 2022.
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake killed 13 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, near the town of Jurm, in the northeast of the country, last March.
Afghanistan is also already in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis, since the return to power of the Taliban in 2021 and the subsequent withdrawal of international aid.