‘Many never woke up’: Quake-hit Afghanistan’s villagers recount destruction

Andarlachak (Kunar), Afghanistan – Habib-ur Rahman led a simple life as a farmer in Loya Banda village, a few hours’ walk from the camp where he sought refuge in Diwa Gul valley in Chawkay district of eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province.

The magnitude 6 earthquake, which struck the region on the night of August 31, was unlike any he had lived through before.

“In the past, when there was an earthquake, we had time to save ourselves. This time around, the shake was very powerful and so sudden that people didn’t even have the time to wake up from sleep. Those who woke up were either injured or stuck under the rubble. But many never woke up at all,” Rahman told Al Jazeera.

The picturesque valley, located some 30km (12 miles) from Kunar’s capital, Asadabad, is dotted with camps housing displaced people and ghost villages with homes destroyed so badly they are uninhabitable. Authorities say about 2,200 people were killed and more than 5,000 homes destroyed by the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, most of them in Kunar.

The United Nations says half a million people have been affected. Local authorities say they have distributed more than 780 tents along the entire Diwa Gul valley so far.

The village next to the camp where Rahman found safety was home to some 200 families. Many of the houses are still standing, but authorities have called on people to move to the camps for their safety as aftershocks continue to rock the valley more than 10 days after the earthquake hit, and could cause further damage.

Farm animals roam the narrow alleys of Andarlachak, with villagers walking away from the camp only to give them water and feed them. For most people in the valley, the small plots of land and the animals are their only fortune.

“We are all just simple farmers in this valley, with a bit of land and a few animals. But we had a good life and everything we needed. Now we have lost everything,” said Rahman.