Western Afghanistan has experienced another earthquake on Wednesday in the morning, local time. This time, it was a 6.3 magnitude quake that occurred around 05:10 local time (00:40 GMT) on Wednesday, located 28 kilometers (about 17 miles) north of the city of Herat.
100 people were injured and had to be taken to hospitals, according to health officials. The quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometers and was part of a series of shocks that affected similar areas in Afghanistan over the weekend.
The epicenter of this earthquake was roughly 29 kilometers to the north of Herat province, as reported by the United States Geological Survey. As of now, there is no information available about the number of casualties resulting from this latest quake.
Rescue teams and volunteers have been actively working on the ground since Saturday, trying to locate survivors of the previous earthquakes. These earlier quakes had devastated entire villages and impacted around 12,000 people, as estimated by the United Nations. While there have been conflicting reports from local and national officials about the number of deaths and injuries from the previous earthquakes, the disaster ministry has confirmed that at least 2,053 people lost their lives.
Many Herat residents have been living in tents outdoors at night due to fear of aftershocks from the weekend tremors, as reported by local media. Providing shelter on a large scale will pose a challenge for the Taliban authorities who took power in Afghanistan in August 2021, as they have complex relations with international aid organizations.
Read More: Death Toll Rises in Afghanistan Earthquakes, Taliban Reports 2,053 Fatalities
Afghanistan is already facing a severe humanitarian crisis, aggravated by the withdrawal of foreign aid. The Herat province, which borders Iran, is home to approximately 1.9 million people, and its rural communities have been grappling with a prolonged drought for several years.
