Photo courtesy of Tasmin News Agency via Wikimedia Commons.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 has struck a heavily populated area near the city of Herat.
By Elizabeth Murray ’26
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article discusses mass death.
In the span of just one week, Afghanistan has been hit by two earthquakes. The Guardian reported that as of Oct. 11, around 3,000 people are believed to have been killed.
AP News reported that the first earthquake on Oct. 7 had a magnitude of 6.3 and hit a heavily populated area near the city of Herat, located in a province by the same name.
The death toll initially released by the Taliban would have made it one of the country’s deadliest earthquakes in 20 years. Several aftershocks followed, with the strongest measuring magnitudes of 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5. Then, on Oct. 11, another 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit north of Herat, according to BBC News.
It is reported that 90% of the deceased are women and children. The governor of Herat province has confirmed that there has been massive infrastructure damage as a result of the two disasters. The Herat province is located in western Afghanistan and borders Iran and Turkmenistan. BBC News reported that a majority of the area’s livestock were killed during the earthquakes, which is especially devastating as the region depends heavily on farming.
The situation in the Herat province has become dire. According to The Guardian, electricity was not available on Wednesday, and residents have lost access to food and clean drinking water. Many are evacuating the capital city or heading to the desert, fearing another earthquake. Herat province is home to approximately 2,000 villages, whose residents have left their homes. According to CBS 12, villages of more than 1,000 homes were counted amongst those impacted.
These two earthquakes come on the heels of the Afghan economy collapsing following the Taliban’s overthrowing of the government in 2021, CBS News explained. As a result of this change, much of the aid sustaining the region has been cut off.
AP News states that the country is now struggling to receive aid in the aftermath of these two disasters, as many in the international community are hesitant to work with the Taliban. Assistance has mainly come from non-governmental aid groups, as well as China and Pakistan.
According to Reuters, some groups, such as the World Food Programme, simply do not have the resources to provide adequate aid to all those affected. "We have 50 million people who do not know where their next meal will come from, and the World Food Program is only able to support 3 million people,” Phillipe Kropf, the head of communications for the World Food Program Afghanistan, told Reuters.
On Thursday, the United States said it would send $12 million in aid, according to CBS News. In 2021 — when the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban took over — the United States froze $7 billion in central bank assets, after which half of those allocated funds were placed in a Swiss banking account dedicated to aiding the Afghan people. Regional analyst Torek Farhadi called for funds to help rebuild after the earthquake in an interview with CBS News.
According to The Guardian, the U.N. and EU have both approved $5 million and $3.5 million in aid, respectively. The Guardian also reported that the country will face an uphill battle as aid groups scramble to raise funds and help rebuild a country that has faced catastrophe after catastrophe in recent years.