New quake strikes devastated Afghanistan

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake has struck western Afghanistan, just days after another major quake killed over 2,000 Afghans and injured thousands more, according to local officials.

The US Geological Survey reported the latest jolt early Wednesday morning, noting a shallow depth of just 9 kilometers. The quake’s epicenter was located around the provincial capital of Herat Province, near Afghanistan’s western border.

“I was so scared and shocked, now I feel dizzy and I’m just throwing up,” local resident Mohammad Reza told the New York Times, adding that he “thought that it was all over” after Saturday’s 6.3-magnitude quake.

While Afghan officials have yet to report casualties after Wednesday’s tremor, a source affiliated with the Herat Seminary Hospital told TOLO News that the facility had treated 55 people with injuries and recorded one death.

The previous earthquake leveled entire villages in western Afghanistan, and resulted in several powerful aftershocks that inflicted additional damage. The country’s Taliban-run Ministry of Public Health has confirmed more than 2,500 fatalities across 21 settlements so far, though humanitarian groups fear that figure will climb as rescuers continue to pull bodies from the ruins.

The Afghan director for Save the Children, Arshad Malik, described the scale of the damage as “truly disturbing,” adding that the casualty numbers “will rise as people are still trapped in the rubble of their homes in Herat.” He called for an “urgent injection” of funds from the international community, and the government in Kabul is reportedly seeking foreign assistance for food, medicine, and other aid.

On Tuesday, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Herat’s Zinda Jan district was the worst-hit area, noting that 500 people remained missing, in addition to 1,300 confirmed deaths.