Afghanistan Earthquake––Herat Province: 7 October, 2023 : Nuzhat Shahzadi

My first concern was to find out how the people I know were doing with their loved ones––were they alive? Were they impacted in any way? I communicated with several staff members from the UNICEF-Herat office––currently living in Herat, and some in the US and Canada who still have strong ties with Herat.

As of yesterday (8th October), the numbers of casualties were still coming in––6.3 magnitude earthquake hit on 7th October, mainly the Zinda Jan district in the north west part of Herat province which is 42.8 km from the Herat city. Strong tremors were also felt in the Badghis and Farah provinces. No further news on that as yet.

According to my UNICEF-Herat source: the epicenter of this earth quake is the poorest of the poor population. 20 villages have been flattened. Massive casualties. 10,000 people were living there––many were IDPs. (About?) 2500 so far are confirmed as dead, while 2500 are injured. About 2000 houses (mostly mud houses) have been totally destroyed. The number of children and women are highest among the dead. 50% people in the district are impacted. Rest of the province, and the region were spared.

Herat City is not affected. I have passed via Zinda Jan several times on my way to Islam Qala––the town that borders Mashad, Iran. Support to IDPs was one of our key focused-strategies those days.

I spoke with Najeeba, our former project assistant, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at present with her family. She escaped Afghanistan with them during the turbulent days of the withdrawal of the US forces. Her husband, Dr Matin, was a great ally as an insider in the Department of Health in Western Afghanistan while I was there. He is now working in the health sector in British Columbia and promised to provide updates from the disaster zone. He has contacts in Herat. Overall, the suffering of the impacted population is tragic. Their lives changed forever in the wink of an eye!

Responses are on-going from the UN and other organizations as well as local communities––food, clothes, water, medicines are coming in. A harsh winter is settling in while the people are trying to survive under the open sky . . . The town is shrouded in heart-breaking cries of the families who lost loved ones.

The dead bodies are piling up.