Earthquake Aftershocks Continue to Devastate Afghanistan

Earthquakes commonly occur in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other regions near the Hindu Kush Mountains, but the recent earthquakes in western Afghanistan and ongoing aftershocks have been particularly devastating.

“The imperceptible aftershocks still occur several times a day,” Malalai Alavi, former deputy of the Herat City Council, told the FBomb. In response to an aftershock on the evening of November 19, “many houses were cracked and will be further destroyed, including my own house,” Alavi added. “At night, we are afraid that another earthquake might happen. We do not sleep properly and peacefully.”

Fatima Karimi, a resident of the Herat Province, said her house was partially destroyed by the October earthquakes.

“I have not slept for several nights,” Karimi said. “I am physically fine now, but mentally, I am very worried and sad. Life in Afghanistan was a little better before the earthquake mentally, but now we are always stressed and anxious because the earthquake has been going on in Herat for over a month.”

Of course, many earthquake victims have already lost their houses and are dealing with injuries — and as winter approaches and temperatures drop to single figures at night, unhoused families are more vulnerable than ever.

“Earthquake victims are still living inside tents in these cold nights,” Alavi said.

The majority of the earthquake’s victims were women and children — 90% of the deaths resulting from this disaster have been those of women. Before the earthquakes occurred, 11.6 million women and girls were already at risk in terms of their access to clean water, sanitation, hygiene, protection, food, shelter, and livelihoods since the bans started, according to a statement from Sima Bahous, UN Women executive director.

The effects of this event are compounded by Afghanistan’s economy, which has been below the poverty line since the re-establishment of the Taliban regime. Families in a lower socioeconomic class have been abandoned, according to Alavi, and “this is the reason for the economic poverty and the inability of the families affected by the earthquake to rebuild their houses.”

A few weeks after the October earthquakes, Alavi delivered food and clothing to people in villages in Herat, such as Chahak, and saw hundreds of houses that were completely destroyed. She also went to the Naib Rafi village, where 80 percent of the village’s population lost their lives.

“Many villages do not have roads, and cars cannot reach there; that is why some remote villages that have been seriously damaged by the earthquake have received less help,” Alavi said. “Houses are being built in some of the earthquake-affected villages by merchants and charity organizations.”

Karimi and Alavi both agreed that aid and resources from other countries have been provided, but that the most help is being provided by community members. It is notable to consider how difficult aid and health care services have been to access — and that women were the majority of those working in aid-related jobs until the Taliban imposed restrictions on women’s work in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) last December.

“How long will the earthquakes continue?” Alavi asked. “Mentally, people, especially those who are under more stress, are still in an inappropriate mental state after the earthquake. In the areas where the earthquake was the center, people, especially women, are still in shock due to the loss of their family members.”

More than 43,000 people have directly been affected, according to the latest reports from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.