Attachments
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the crisis
An earthquake with of magnitude 6.3, followed by multiple aftershocks, struck western Afghanistan on Saturday, 7 October 2023 at 11:00 local time1. The earthquake’s epicentre was in Zinda Jan district, 40 km northwest of Herat City.
It was felt strongly across four provinces (Badghis, Farah, Ghor, and Herat), with Herat bearing the brunt. The initial earthquake was followed by several aftershocks and strong earthquakes. Refer to Chart 1 for details of the earthquakes.
The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) indicated that the earthquakes mostly impacted 382 villages of nine districts (Enjil,
Ghoryan Gulran, Guzara, Herat, Karukh, Kohsan,
Robat Sangi and Zinda Ian). Official data indicates that over 2,000 people have been killed and over 9,000 injured.
There has been an extensive impact on structures, with some 48,000 houses destroyed or damaged2. In several affected villages, not a single house remains standing. Thousands of people are living in open space under tents, tarpaulins or other locally made temporary make-shift structures as their houses were destroyed or are afraid of returning home due to frequent aftershocks.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) staff and volunteers from the Herat branch were among the first responders. They were augmented by teams from neighbouring provinces, with 32 response teams deployed in the affected areas thus far.
ARCS has been engaged in lifesaving activities, including search and rescue, emergency first aid, distribution of ready to eat food and water, emergency shelter, household items, and transportation of injured people to the hospital.
Following the earthquakes of 7 October, the IFRC Secretariat dispatched emergency shelter and household items, allocated CHF 750,000 from the IFRC Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the ARCS immediate response, and relaunched the Emergency Appeal MDRAF007 to incorporate immediate and recovery needs arising from the earthquakes. The latest Emergency Appeal revision includes funding requirement of CHF 9 million for the Herat earthquakes response. The Herat Earthquakes response is among several others supported by the IFRC within a context of multiple humanitarian crises affecting Afghanistan.
Revision six of the emergency appeal now has four operational strategies:
• Initial operational strategy for the wide humanitarian crisis – timeframe ends on 31 December 2023.
• Operational strategy for the Khost and Paktika earthquake – timeframe ends on 31 December 2023.
• Revised operational strategy for the wide humanitarian crisis (Protracted Humanitarian Crisis)– timeframe ends on 31 December 2024.
• Operational strategy for Herat earthquakes – timeframe ends on 31 December 2024.
In the Herat earthquakes operation, ARCS has reoriented multisector interventions focusing on basic needs and livelihoods, health, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), with community engagement and accountability (CEA), disaster risk reduction (DRR), national society development (NSD), and protection gender and inclusion (PGI) integrated. Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) will be the preferred modality for delivering assistance. Recovery interventions will be initiated alongside relief efforts, and the preparedness for effective response (PER) approach has been adopted from the outset of the operation.