KASHKAK: Rescue workers were digging on Monday for families still trapped in the rubble of their ruined dwellings, two days after a series of earthquakes that killed over 2,000 people in rural western Afghanistan.
People are trying to search and get their loved ones out of debris, disaster management ministry spokesman Mullah Janan Sayeq told a media conference in Kabul, saying reports from the field tell a very bad situation.
Volunteers in trucks packed with food, blankets, and tents flocked to hard-to-reach areas thirty kilometers northwest of Herat city, the capital of the same-named province, affected by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake Saturday and 8 powerful aftershocks, according to AFP.
They also brought shovels to assist in digging through the rubble of flattened villages as hope dwindled that anyone may still be buried alive.
Many people have come from far-flung areas to get people out of the rubble, said Khalid, 32, at Kashkak in district Zenda Jan.
He said that everyone is busy searching for lifeless bodies everywhere; we do not know if there are others as well under the debris.
Local counts of fatalities in Afghanistan
Local and national officials provided conflicting counts of the number of dead and wounded, but the disaster ministry said on Sunday that 2,053 people had died.
Sayeq said Monday that they cannot give exact numbers for dead and injured as it is in flux.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that over 11,000 people had been affected from 1,655 families, whilst the UN said 100% of homes in eleven villages were totally destroyed.
As winter approaches, providing shelter for residents will be a big challenge for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which seized power in August 2021 and has fractious ties with international aid bodies.
