HERAT, Afghanistan -- The death toll from a series of earthquakes in western Afghanistan rose sharply on Sunday to more than 2,000, the Taliban government said, as bodies continued to be pulled from demolished villages and buried in mass graves.
More than 1,300 homes were toppled when Saturday's magnitude 6.3 quake -- followed by eight strong aftershocks -- jolted hard-to-reach areas 30 kilometres northwest of the provincial capital of Herat, according to officials.
Some of the bodies were shrouded in fleece blankets, as workers used those same tools to excavate their communal graves in the gravelly brown earth. He also gave a figure of more than 9,000 injured but later retracted that, saying it referred to the number of residents in the affected area.Amir Hussain, 33, toiled through the night as hopes faded and the rescue effort turned into a recovery operation in Kashkak village of Zinda Jan district.
Gutted homes showed personal belongings flapping in the harsh wind, as women and children lingered out in the open."Those who were inside the houses were buried," he said."There are families we have heard no news from.""We came home and saw that actually there was nothing left. Everything had turned to sand," said the 32-year-old.Most rural homes in Afghanistan are made of mud built around wooden support poles, with little in the way of modern steel reinforcement.
Afghanistan is already suffering a dire humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid following the Taliban's return to power in 2021."The scale of the damage is horrific. The numbers affected by this tragedy are truly disturbing," said country director Arshad Malik.
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