- Western Afghanistan was shaken again by a severe earthquake early on Wednesday morning.
- According to the US Earthquake Observatory USGS, the quake had a magnitude of 6.3 and occurred around 28 kilometers northwest of the city of Herat at a depth of ten kilometers.
- There are no reports of injuries or new damage yet.
- Just last weekend, almost 2,500 people died in several severe earthquakes in the region.
On Saturday morning, at least eight earthquakes shook the border region near Iran within a short period of time. The US Earthquake Observatory USGS put the magnitude at values between 4.6 and 6.3. The tremors occurred northwest of Herat at a shallow depth of around ten kilometers. Aftershocks of magnitude 5.1 were recorded on Monday.
Legend:
People are returning to their destroyed homes after last weekend’s earthquakes.
Reuters/AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
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 major damage.
Fear of famine
Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned of a famine in Afghanistan due to drastically reduced funding.
“The situation is pretty hopeless,” said the WFP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, John Aylieff, to the editorial network Germany (RND). The humanitarian aid programs are “drastically underfunded”. The WFP has 80 percent less money for Afghanistan than last year, said Aylieff.
«15 million people in Afghanistan are currently suffering from hunger, we wanted to reach at least 13 million. Because of a lack of funding, we had to cut off aid to ten million people,” said Aylieff.
“Brutal” winter expected
The approaching “brutal” winter in Afghanistan is making things “particularly critical”: “Some mountain villages are cut off from the outside world for up to six months due to the snow. They can’t survive without supplies,” said 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 make many highly problematic decisions, humanity must come first,” he said.
The support for Afghanistan has fallen significantly more compared to the aid for other countries. “That doesn’t meet the need in any way.”