Kabul: Thousands of Afghans who survived powerful earthquake that killed more than 2,00 people were bracing for winter of homelessness, as rescuers made last-ditch efforts to find survivors.

Volunteers have worked with spades and pickaxes in Herat province since Saturday’s deadly magnitude 6.3 quake followed by powerful aftershocks while others dug graves instead. United Nations said more than 12,000 people, from some 1,700 families are estimated to have been affected.

It said “100 percent” of homes were destroyed in 11 villages of Zenda Jan district. Zareen, in village of Nayeb Rafi, where 11 of his family members were killed in crush of falling masonry, said aid tents would not withstand winter storms. “If government doesn’t take us away or help us, we will be stuck here,” man in his 70s told AFP.

Providing shelter on large scale will be challenge for Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, who seized power in August 2021 and have fractious relations with international aid organisations.

In provincial capital of Herat city 30 kilometres southeast of quake epicentres in hard-to-reach Zenda Jan district Doctors Without Borders said injured now faced new ordeal. “More than 340 patients discharged yesterday don’t want to leave hospital as they have no homes to return to,” charity said on social media site X.

Published in The Daily National Courier, October, 11 2023

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