Darainur – Families huddled hungry and homeless days after a deadly earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan, not daring to set foot in the few remaining buildings for fear an aftershock could bring them down. The initial powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck remote regions along the border with Pakistan, killing more than 1,400 people, with at least six strong aftershocks and countless smaller tremors.
Some farming villages tucked among the green mountainsides were flattened, with people still under the rubble days later.
Elsewhere, some houses were only partially destroyed, but residents preferred to brave the elements than risk being crushed.
Still haunted by the “terrifying night” when the quake destroyed his house in the village of Dar-i-nur in Nangarhar province, Emran Mohammad Aref said he had since slept with four other family members outside on a rough plastic mat. “There was a tremor yesterday and there was also one this morning,” Aref told a wire service. “Now we have no place to live and we are asking everyone for help.”
While those with the means fled the village, residents who had no choice but to stay cobbled together makeshift shelters with whatever they could find among the destruction. Even in Jalalabad, Nangarhar’s provincial capital, which suffered no damage but felt the quake and its aftershocks, “we are very afraid”, said Fereshta, a 42-year-old doctor. “Every time I take a step, I feel like the ground is shaking. We don’t stay inside the house and we sleep in the garden, constantly thinking there will be another quake,” she said.
