![Afghan mourners on October 9 offer mass funeral prayers for the victims of a series of earthquakes in Zindajan district, Herat province. [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2023/10/10/44437-33xv2aw-highres-739_416.webp)
SIAH AB -- Rescue workers scrambled through rubble Tuesday (October 10) for villagers buried in their houses by a series of earthquakes that killed more than 2,000 residents of rural western Afghanistan.
Hope of finding survivors however was fading fast.
Volunteers have worked nonstop with spades and pickaxes in Herat province since Saturday's deadly magnitude-6.3 quake struck -- followed by a series of powerful aftershocks -- but some were turning to digging graves instead.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by deadly earthquakes, but the weekend disaster is the worst to strike in more than 25 years.
![Afghans on October 8 dig graves for the victims of earthquakes in Sarbuland village, Zindajan district of Herat province. More than 2,000 are confirmed dead, with almost 10,000 injured, from a series of earthquakes that hit rural northwestern Afghanistan on October 7. [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2023/10/10/44438-33xq7uv-highres-739_416.webp)
Afghans on October 8 dig graves for the victims of earthquakes in Sarbuland village, Zindajan district of Herat province. More than 2,000 are confirmed dead, with almost 10,000 injured, from a series of earthquakes that hit rural northwestern Afghanistan on October 7. [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]
![Afghans clear debris October 8 as they look for victims' bodies in the rubble after the earthquakes in Siah Ab village, Zindajan district of Herat province. [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2023/10/10/44439-33xn9ej-highres-739_416.webp)
Afghans clear debris October 8 as they look for victims' bodies in the rubble after the earthquakes in Siah Ab village, Zindajan district of Herat province. [Mohsen Karimi/AFP]
Strong tremors were still shaking the area on Monday.
'No one is left'
"There are families who don't have anyone left alive," said 50-year-old Ali Mohammad in Nayeb Rafi village, once home to 2,000 inhabitants.
"No one is left, not a woman nor a child... no one."
"One family had 20 members buried in the rubble," he said, adding that only two members of the family survived -- because they happened to be out of the house.
In Nayeb Rafi -- once home to some 2,000 families -- there were no buildings left standing, only undulating piles of broken mud bricks that were once ceilings and walls.
Twin excavators scooped at the wreckage to retrieve belongings and bodies as hopes of finding survivors died out in some areas. Elsewhere, those still optimistic continued to dig with spades and pickaxes.
In nearby Siah Ab, near the epicenter of the quake, a mass funeral ceremony was held Monday for more than 300 victims collected from nearby communities.
White-shrouded bodies were unloaded from a fleet of vehicles and laid in ranks as a crowd of men solemnly crossed their arms in Islamic prayer.
"I thought I must have been dreaming; all the places were razed," said 30-year-old Ismail.
"No one is left."
The United Nations (UN) says "100%" of houses were destroyed in 11 villages of rural Zindajan, a hard-to-reach district just 30km northwest of Herat city, the provincial capital.
Most rural houses in Afghanistan are made of mud, built around wooden support poles, with little in the way of modern steel reinforcement.
Multi-generational extended families generally live under the same roof, meaning disasters such as Saturday's quake can devastate local communities.
'A very bad situation'
Disaster Management Ministry spokesman Mullah Janan Sayeq said late Monday that desperate villagers were still searching to "get their family out of debris."
But reports from the field described "a very bad situation" he told a news conference in Kabul.
Local and national officials gave conflicting counts of the number of dead and injured, but the ministry said Sunday that 2,053 people had died.
"We can't give exact numbers for dead and wounded as it is in flux," Sayeq said.
More than 11,000 members of 1,655 families were affected, the World Health Organization says.
Trucks packed with food and blankets have arrived in the area, with blue tents popping up among the ruins of villages.
As winter draws in, providing shelter for residents will be a major challenge for Afghanistan's leaders, who have fractious relations with international aid organizations.
The authorities have banned women from working for UN and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Afghanistan, making it difficult to assess family needs in deeply conservative parts of the country.
Amnesty International (AI) said rescue and relief efforts should be carried out "without discrimination."
"It is critical that all assistance meets the needs of the most at-risk groups who often face compounded challenges in crisis situations, including women," said AI South Asia regional researcher Zaman Sultani.
"The United States is carefully tracking the impact of [Saturday's] earthquake in northwestern Afghanistan. Our humanitarian partners are responding with urgent aid in support of the people of Afghanistan," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.
'Crisis on top of crisis'
Afghanistan is already suffering a dire humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid since August 2021, and the continuing presence of terrorist organizations such as the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" Khorasan branch (ISIS-K), al-Qaeda and others.
Save the Children called the quake "a crisis on top of a crisis."
"The scale of the damage is horrific. The numbers affected by this tragedy are truly disturbing," said the group's country director, Arshad Malik.
Herat province -- home to about 1.9 million inhabitants on the border with Iran -- has also been hit by a years-long drought that has crippled many hardscrabble farm communities.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
More than 1,000 residents were killed and tens of thousands left homeless last June after a 5.9-magnitude quake struck the impoverished province of Paktika.
In 1998, more than 4,000 residents died in a magnitude-6.5 quake that struck Takhar province.
Information specialists and informants are in charge of collecting and organizing this information and provide researchers with the results of previous researches, but unfortunately, in our country, there are very few reliable research centers and well-equipped libraries, and researchers cannot access first-hand material, or if they want to get first-hand material by talking to the main actors, these actors rarely come forward to reveal the facts, express or provide it to a researcher. Not knowing a foreign language One of the big challenges of our researchers, especially in historical and academic issues, is not knowing foreign languages, which means that our researchers are not able to use the material prepared in foreign languages. According to one of our modern history researchers, there are about 90 thousand documents and books in the National Archives of India on Afghanistan, but these materials have not been used for years and Afghan researchers have not done their homework and have not used these materials. In the same way, for many years, a scientific article has not been written by Afghan scientists who are inside the country, and if it has been written, it has not been published in the international journals. This means that our contribution to the production of science in the world is almost nothing.
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It is at a time as no specific and coherent definition of national interests, national feelings and national betrayal has been provided yet, rather each individual and group defines and distorts these terms according to their own taste. A very prominent example is the 19 of August, which we celebrate every year under the name of Afghanistan's Independence Day, while it is said that no historical events took place on this day and it is just a ceremonial day, many people make accusations that it is against national interests. While we all believe that the 19 of August should be celebrated as a proud day, but no historical event has happened on this day and the handing over of Afghanistan's independence did not take place on this day, but a ceasefire between the Afghan and British forces was held on August 8, 1919, and a conference was held on November 22, 1921, in which the independence of Afghanistan was recognized by Britain, which is known as the Kabul Conference. Lack of access to first-hand materials Libraries and information centers, as the main centers for collecting and organizing information resources, provide the necessary tools for researchers and research development. Since no research can be successful without establishing a link with the research background in its subject area, access to up-to-date information sources is one of the most important needs of researchers. All researchers need to be aware of the activities that have already happened in their research
Reply11 Comment
An Afghan researcher read a document in the Indian archives about one of the Afghan tribes and translated it. The document was written about two hundred years ago and it said that people of an ethnic group of Afghanistan were originally Indian, but they migrated to the southern region of Afghanistan and today they are among the prominent people of the country. As soon as our author stated this, he received dozens of criticisms and was even accused of inciting ethnic differences, while he had seen and translated a document about a tribe from a foreign archive and offered no personal opinion about the mentioned tribe or people. Instead of criticizing the researcher, it can be rejected or confirmed with academic documents, plans, reasons and hypotheses. National sentiments There is no doubt that every country and citizens of all the countries of the world have some kind of national and patriotic feelings, but when scientific research and university research issues are raised, their thinkers investigate and examine the issues from their point of view. And when they deal with divisive issues and accept the opinion of the other side openly, in our country not only are opposing views and others unacceptable, but also when a historical issue is looked at from the perspective of an academic angle is immediately hurt by the so-called national sentiments and even the speaker is accused of national betrayal.
Reply11 Comment
Unfortunately, ethnic, religious, partisan and political prejudices cast a shadow on the atmosphere of writing the history of Afghanistan and researching historical events, and we rarely find researchers who come out from under this influence and write the issues as they are. On the other hand, the sources that should be used as first-hand sources, they were also written in the shadow of these prejudices and wrong and prejudiced interpretations of historical events have been made, which has made the work of writers and educators very difficult. For example, until a few years ago, an Afghan researcher or even an educated person could hardly know the facts about the Durand Line and the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan regarding this issue because all the writing in the country were based on the views dictated by our government officials and only the views of Afghan rulers and politicians were discussed, and if an Afghan writer judges this issue impartially and includes Pakistan's point of view and adapts the Durand issue to international laws and global disputes, very soon he will be biased. Or he is accused of being hostile to a certain tribe, while in recent years two or three books have been written about the Durand border, which have raised this issue from the perspective of both sides and proved that we Afghans are contrary to what was dictated to us in the history of the school period, we don't have many strong and accepted reasons based on international standard
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It was a sad news to hear about the earthquake that happened in Herat province and a large number of our compatriots were killed and a large number of them were injured while a number of them are still under the rubble. This news brought tears to my eyes after reading it, and especially when I listened to the interviews of the people of that area, which said that only one young son is left from a family of 9, and the rest of their family went under the soil and so on. There were dozens of other families who have lost all their family members and only one family member survived. All these news were full of sadness and I couldn't bear to hear this news, because I felt pain as if I might have lost my own family members, and especially the crying of a child who had lost his family members made me very upset. This is the image of an innocent child. I request the government of the Islamic Emirate to allow aid teams with women to provide first aid to the affected people of Herat province. First of all, medical aid should be sent there. As most of the victims are women who are in great need of female doctors, the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan should allow female doctors to provide medical assistance to the victims of Herat Province.
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Herat's earthquake was a very painful and sad event. When I got informed and I opened Facebook, all Facebook and Twitter were full of photos and videos of the incident, I just couldn't cry! Thanks to dear Afghans, who camped from city to city and province to province and collected aids for the victims of the mentioned incident. Many countries of the world also helped, for which we are grateful. Now the main thing is that these aids are well managed and every man gets his due. First houses should be built for the families of the victims of the accident, then stuff and dishes be bought for them, and thirdly, care be taken of children and elders whose no family members have remained. We will see the Omari justice and that what will be done with these donations!!!
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Part II: In fact, Pakistan's army and military intelligence are hostile to any movement or group that takes in hand the main power in Afghanistan and enforces discipline. By returning to power and government in Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban slowly realized that the real enemy of Afghanistan and the Taliban is not America, nor India, China, nor Russia, but the main enemy of Afghanistan is Pakistan's Military Intelligence Agency (ISI) and the Pakistani Army, which in no way let order reigns in Afghanistan. At the same time, the Akhundi [government] system of Iran, which also played a role in the destruction of Afghanistan and still plays a role, and also the Turkish government, which supported the famous Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, also known as Marshal Dostum, and still accommodates him in their country. They act like enemies against the Afghan immigrants and none of them show mercy against the Afghans. We ask the Taliban government to regain its national and international legitimacy as soon as possible, and cut off its relations with the hypocritical country (Pakistan) that supports and implements terrorism in the region and the world. In order to gain national legitimacy, the Taliban must give ethnic minorities, including Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara, etc share, and give the right to education to girls and the right to work to women. Also, to bind themselves to the international conventions of which Afghanistan has been a member and signatory for a long time.
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Today, we learned through the media that the Taliban government did not allow a Pakistani plane carrying first aid and doctors to land in Herat Province to help the victims of the earthquake. We praise this work of the Afghan government as they did not allow the hypocrites of the century to put their dirty feet on the holy soil of Afghanistan. Pakistan and especially the damned army and intelligence of that bastard and devil country have been directly and indirectly involved in the destruction of our dear country Afghanistan since four and a half decades. During the last two years and especially in these last two weeks, the dirty officials of the Pakistani government and their dirty generals are harassing the Afghan immigrants living in that country. They take them captive, they take innocent Afghan women and children captive and force them to return to Afghanistan. It is at a time as in Afghanistan, in the last two years, the Taliban has taken into power and they do not even allow girls to continue their education abvoe grade 6. Also, with the departure of foreign forces and international organizations, both official duties and daily tasks were reduced and Afghans were forced to travel to neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan and also to Turkey and Europe in order to get a piece of bread. Although it was the same group that Pakistan's military intelligence and dirty army supported to fight against the international coalition forces and the forces of the Afghan Natio
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May Allah have mercy on Afghans. Afghans significantly suffered. In recent years, Afghans have been struggling with various difficulties. We suffered from drought and natural calamities. Even the animals of this land would pity us. We have families who do not even have dry bread. The leaders of this country looted everything and left the country. If someone tells this country's people that the rest of the nations are very prosperous, they will not believe it. Our leaders have kept this nation in the dark; everything seems to be a lie. What can we say? May Allah have mercy.
ReplyI agree with your opinion. It is true that Afghans have suffered a lot, but it is all due to our ignorance. If we get educated, as time passes, the Lord of the heavens will have mercy on us. With these actions, I will never be forgiven unless we know the difference between good and bad.
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May Allah grant heaven to the martyrs of the earthquake and speedy recovery to the injured. The reality is that the victims of the quake were either martyred or injured, but the Afghan nation was severely affected mentally. Herat's incident is being discussed in every house and gathering. All the Afghan people consider themselves partners in this great grief and pain. I also saw people who shared their food with the victims of the Herat earthquake. May Allah keep us safe from His calamities.
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