Battered region: Afghanistan again shaken by a major earthquake

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According to the American Earthquake Observatory USGS, the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3 and occurred about 28 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat at a depth of six kilometers. There were initially no reports of injuries or new damage.

This meant the earth shook again in the region where media reports said nearly 2,500 people had been killed in several earthquakes over the weekend. More than 2,000 other people were injured. However, the UN emergency aid agency OCHA previously estimated the number of deaths at more than 1,000. Herat is located in the border province of the same name near Iran and is the largest city in Afghanistan after Kabul.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 also occurred on Saturday

On Saturday morning, at least eight earthquakes shook the border area near Iran in a short period of time. The American earthquake monitoring station USGS estimated the magnitude at values ​​between 4.6 and 6.3. The tremors occurred northwest of Herat at a shallow depth of about ten kilometers. Earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.1 were recorded on Monday.

Serious earthquakes occur regularly in the region where the Arabian, Indian and Eurasian plates meet. A devastating earthquake in Afghanistan in 2022 killed more than a thousand people. After decades of conflict, many houses are poorly built. Earthquakes often cause major damage.

The UN World Food Program warns of famine

Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned of a famine in Afghanistan due to drastically reduced funding. “The situation is quite hopeless,” WFP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific John Aylieff told the Germany editorial network (RND). Humanitarian aid programs are “dramatically underfunded.”

The WFP has 80 percent less money for Afghanistan than last year, Aylieff said. Instead of 1.6 billion dollars (about 1.5 billion euros), only 340 million dollars (about 320 million euros) would be available for Afghanistan. “Currently 15 million people in Afghanistan are hungry, we wanted to reach at least 13 million. Due to a lack of funding, we had to cut off aid to ten million people,” he told RND.

Critical situation due to approaching ‘brutal winter’

The approaching “brutal” winter in Afghanistan makes things “particularly critical”: “Some mountain villages are cut off from the outside world for up to six months because of the snow. They cannot survive without supplies,” says Aylieff. He expects drastic consequences: “Of course people will flee. But above all, more people will die.”

The UN representative called on the international community to increase its support for Afghanistan. “Even if the Taliban makes many very problematic decisions, humanity must come first,” he said. Aid for Afghanistan has fallen considerably more than aid for other countries. “That doesn’t meet the need in any way.” (SDA)

Source: Blick