Third earthquake strikes Afghanistan, killing one and injuring 35

Bengaluru — An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, killing one person and injuring 35.

This came after many tremors in the western province of Herat on Saturday and Wednesday, destroying entire villages in the war-battered country, many of which are in remote areas.

Sunday’s quake was at a depth of 10km, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.

Afghanistan’s disaster management ministry on Friday revised downward the death toll from multiple earthquakes to about 1,000 from an earlier figure of more than 2,400, said a spokesperson.

“About 1,000 dead, 2,000 registered injured and 1,320 houses destroyed,” said the spokesperson of the Taliban-run disaster management ministry, Janan Sayeeq, of the earthquakes that struck on Saturday.

The UN’s humanitarian office said last week that about 1,300 people died.

Sayeeq said that another earthquake on Wednesday, also in the province, resulted in three deaths and 164 injured.

Despite the reduced death toll, the effect on Afghans threatens to worsen an already growing humanitarian crisis.

The earthquakes flattened buildings in about 20 villages in the northwest, Afghan officials said.

Afghanistan’s healthcare system, reliant almost entirely on foreign aid, has faced crippling cuts in the two years since the Taliban took over. Since the, much international assistance, which had formed the backbone of the economy, was halted.

Diplomats and aid officials say concern about Taliban restrictions on women and competing global humanitarian crises are causing donors to pull back on financial support.

The Islamist government ordered most Afghan women aid staff not to work, though with exemptions in health and education.

Aid agencies launched fresh appeals for funds to deal with the fallout of deadly earthquakes as local authorities called for urgent help for thousands of people left homeless by the tremors.

Reuters