The Taliban administration in Afghanistan announced on Sunday that a staggering 2,053 individuals had lost their lives in a series of earthquakes, with more than 9,000 people sustaining injuries. These tremors marked the deadliest seismic events to strike the quake-prone mountainous nation in several years.
The earthquakes, which occurred on Saturday in the western part of Afghanistan, were centered approximately 35 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of Herat city. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recorded one of them as having a magnitude of 6.3. These quakes ranked among the most devastating globally, adding to a year already marred by tremors in Turkey and Syria that claimed an estimated 50,000 lives in February.
Janan Sayeeq, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Disasters, confirmed the tragic toll, reporting 2,053 fatalities, 9,240 injuries, and damage or destruction to 1,320 houses. This death toll represented a stark increase from the initial count of 500 reported earlier on Sunday by the Red Crescent.
In response to the disaster, ten rescue teams were dispatched to the affected region, which shares a border with Iran, as announced by Sayeeq during a press conference. Hospitals in Herat received over 200 deceased victims, according to a health department official who identified himself as Dr. Danish. The majority of these casualties were women and children, and their bodies were distributed to various locations, including military bases and hospitals.
Images on social media depicted makeshift beds set up outside the main hospital in Herat to accommodate the influx of victims. Urgent needs for rescue and relief efforts included food, drinking water, medicine, clothing, and tents, as emphasized by Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar, in a message to the media.
Photographs on social media also revealed some damage to the medieval minarets of Herat, with visible cracks and fallen tiles. Afghanistan, nestled amid imposing mountains, has a history of powerful earthquakes, particularly in the rugged Hindu Kush region along the border with Pakistan.
It’s worth noting that death tolls often rise when information comes in from more remote areas, given the country’s long-standing war-torn conditions that have left infrastructure in disarray and hindered the organization of relief and rescue operations.
Afghanistan’s healthcare system, heavily reliant on foreign aid, has faced severe cuts since the Taliban’s takeover, with international assistance, a vital component of the economy, halted. Concerns over Taliban restrictions on women’s rights and competing global humanitarian crises have caused donors to reduce financial support. The Islamist government has even directed most Afghan female aid workers not to work, except for those in health and education.
In August, the International Committee of the Red Cross indicated that it might terminate its financial support for 25 Afghan hospitals due to funding constraints, although it was unclear if the Herat hospital was included in that list.
The earthquake-induced panic gripped Herat, as residents like Naseema described people leaving their homes and the city experiencing aftershocks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Herat province, where the disaster struck, had a total of 202 public health facilities, with the main regional hospital receiving 500 casualties. However, the majority of these facilities are smaller basic health centers, and logistical challenges were hampering operations, especially in remote areas. The WHO highlighted that the search and rescue operations were ongoing, with casualties in these remote areas yet to be fully accounted for.
