The de facto government of the Taliban estimated this Monday “4,500 victims of the earthquake”, between dead and injured, in the west of the country, without certainty on the total number of deaths, which until the last balance exceeded 2,400. time they ask for help for this ‘major emergency’.

“It is difficult to give the exact number of deaths and injuries as there are 35 teams working, there have been approximately more than 4,500 deaths and injuries, that is changing,” said the spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Disaster Management . Gov., Mullah Janan Sayeq.

The situation in the province, in the west of the country, is one of “major emergency”, indicated the authorities who do not have the resources to cope with the catastrophe that destroyed at least a dozen towns last Saturday.

Until now, civilians themselves, volunteers and survivors have had to dig through the rubble with small flashlights, shovels and fingernails, looking for traces of clothing or ‘foreign’ objects that help them to assume the presence of bodies or people still in be life. villages now turned into mountains of earth and rubble.

“The situation in the area is very urgent and people need all kinds of help,” Sayeq said.

The government has limited machinery and technology for rescue operations, and despite pleas for help, the Taliban’s isolation has made dispatches difficult.

So far, Iran has offered to send about 20 rescue troops and two sniffer dogs for the operations, while some other shipments from a few countries are limited to medicine, food and emergency kits.

The number of victims is constantly changing, he said, and “due to the large number of destroyed villages, the people themselves can no longer work and only machines work in the destroyed villages,” he explained.

To people’s complaints about the lack of first aid services, including shelter, water and food, the official responded: “There are still many people under the rubble and our priority is to get them out of the dust.”

The spokesperson called on all humanitarian organizations to reach out and assist in rescue operations.

“I request all humanitarian organizations to provide assistance as twenty villages have been completely destroyed and all the people there need assistance with food, non-food and shelter,” he admitted.

Afghanistan felt at least seven tremors on Saturday. The first, the largest, occurred at 12:11 (+5:30 GMT) at a depth of 14 kilometers and 33 kilometers from the city of Zindah Jan, located in Herat province, according to the USGS.

Three other earthquakes with magnitudes up to 5.1 shook the same region today as rescue operations take place.

Even in Herat, the capital of the province of the same name, people have decided to sleep on the streets for fear of a new catastrophe.

So far, the balance estimated that 2,400 people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured.

This is the third deadliest earthquake in Afghanistan since 1998 and the worst tragedy the Taliban have faced since taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, without access to the financial system and international reserves. (JO)