Western Afghanistan was shaken again by a severe earthquake early on Wednesday morning. According to the US Earthquake Observatory USGS, it had a magnitude of 6.3 and occurred about 28 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat at a depth of ten kilometers. The state news agency Bakhtar reported new serious damage, destroyed houses and at least 100 injured.
Nearly 2,500 people died in several earthquakes in the region over the weekend, according to media reports citing official statistics. More than 2,000 other people were injured. The UN emergency relief office OCHA puts the death toll so far at around 1,300. Herat is located in the border province of the same name near Iran and is the second largest city in Afghanistan after Kabul.
There are frequent severe earthquakes in the region where the Arabian, Indian and Eurasian plates meet. More than 1,000 people died in a devastating earthquake in Afghanistan in 2022. After several decades of war and conflict, many houses are poorly built. Earthquakes therefore often cause great damage.
The fact that Afghanistan has been ruled by the Taliban for two years does not make coordinating relief measures any easier, and willingness abroad to help the country has also decreased. European Union officials said in Brussels on Tuesday that the EU would provide 3.5 million euros in humanitarian aid for earthquake victims in Afghanistan. In addition, the EU is offering benefits in kind worth one million euros.
UN World Food Program warns of famine
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) is now warning of a famine in Afghanistan due to drastically reduced funding. “The situation is pretty hopeless,” said WFP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, John Aylieff, to the editorial network Germany (RND). Humanitarian aid programs are “drastically underfunded.”
The approaching “brutal” winter in Afghanistan is making things “particularly critical”: “Some mountain villages are cut off from the outside world by the snow for up to six months. They cannot survive without supplies,” said Aylieff. The UN representative called on the international community to increase its support for Afghanistan. “Even if the Taliban make many highly problematic decisions, humanity must come first,” he said.