JALALABAD, Afghanistan – A series of strong aftershocks from a deadly earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan at the weekend injured at least another 10 people and caused further damage, Taliban authorities said on Friday.
Five shallow aftershocks, the strongest measuring at magnitude 5.6, were recorded by the US Geological Survey on Thursday night and Friday morning, with some rattling Kabul and the Pakistan capital, Islamabad.
National disaster authority spokesman Mohammad Hammad told AFP 10 people were injured across eight provinces jolted by the aftershocks, including the hardest hit Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman, adding to the more than 3,700 already injured in the initial quake.
More than 2,200 people were killed after the magnitude-6.0 earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan just before midnight on Sunday, making it the deadliest quake to hit the country in decades.
In Nuristan province, north of Kunar, resident Enamullah Safi said he and others ran out of their homes when the aftershocks hit overnight.
“Everyone was afraid. We are still afraid and have not returned to our homes,” the 25-year-old cook told AFP, saying he huddled under a blanket with several other people to keep warm in the cold, mountain night.
Some houses were damaged or destroyed he said, adding that they have received little assistance, as aid is concentrated in the worst-hit zones. AFP
Access has been stymied by already poor roads blocked by landslides and rockfall that continued as the area was convulsed by aftershocks.
The disaster comes as Afghanistan is already facing multiple crises after decades of conflict, contending with endemic poverty, severe drought and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover.
Meanwhile, four nights and days since the earth shook and levelled his home in eastern Afghanistan, Khan Zaman Hanafi thought he had endured the worst, until the rain came.
The 35-year-old farmer says his village has “been forgotten by the government and aid groups”.
“It’s raining and we’re being left to live in the open,” he told AFP from a cornfield where he has been sleeping with his family, away from the wreckage of their village, Shelt.
In these valleys — once known as smuggling routes and corridors for fighters moving to and from Pakistan before the Taliban returned to power — mud houses are built into the mountainsides, stacked one above another.
On Sunday night, when the magnitude 6.0 quake struck, the homes collapsed in a giant domino effect.
Kunar province, famous for its forests, was the hardest hit by the quake — one of the deadliest in the country’s history, having already claimed over 2,200 lives.
“In Shelt, there were 350 houses and 300 in Mama Gol, and we heard only 68 tents were distributed,” said Hanafi, adding he has yet to see one.
“This place is unlivable, but we have no choice,” he said. “We are poor. We want the government and aid groups to help us rebuild our homes.”
But the Taliban authorities have already admitted they cannot cope alone.
For their part, the United Nations and NGOs say their resources are already overstretched, as they face a sharp drop in international aid and the return of millions of migrants expelled from neighbouring countries.
For now, authorities are sending bulldozers onto Kunar’s steep slopes to clear the few narrow, winding roads as quickly as possible.
Khan Saeed Deshmash was spared from the rough roads, his injuries meaning he was flown by helicopter, along with a dozen injured relatives, from his village of Minjegale, to a hospital in Jalalabad, the capital of neighboring Nangarhar province.
The 47-year-old grain farmer lost six family members in the quake, along with all his cows and sheep.
“Everyone is traumatized, it’s chaos — we can’t even think straight anymore,” he said.
Only one thing is certain now, Deshmash said: “It’s no longer possible to live in these villages. There are still aftershocks, every house is destroyed, and we need to be relocated elsewhere.”
But Abdul Alam Nezami, 35, said he wants to stay in his village of Massoud, where he inherited his father’s cornfields.
He would be starting from zero to repair everything that was brought down in the quake or damaged by landslides and rockfall, in a country where around 85 percent of people already live on a dollar a day according to the UN.
Work is underway to clear the blocked roads, but “the irrigation canals and water reservoirs also need to be rebuilt so the harvests are not completely lost,” Nezami said.
For now, he is focused on his immediate living situation.
“There is only one tent for two to three families, and some leak when it rains,” he said.
And the rain has not stopped, with downpours “last night and again this morning”.
In Mazar Dara too, the tarpaulins salvaged from the rubble to create makeshift shelters “have holes” and “don’t protect us from the rain”, said 48-year-old farmer Zahir Khan Safi.
“We keep them for the children,” he told AFP, but they still end up in wet clothes. “And have nothing to change into.” AFP
