Nepal's deadliest temblor in almost ten years: According to the US Geological Survey, on Friday, November 3, at 11:47 p.m. local time, a magnitude 5.6 tremblor struck a particularly remote region in the far west of the country.

The temblor's epicenter was not far from the border with Tibet, and killed at least 157 people – including 105 in the Jajarkot district and 52 in Rukum West, according to the latest report from the Nepalese authorities, released on Saturday. Nearly 200 more were injured.

The violence of the earthquake was such that it was felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, located more than 500 kilometers from its epicenter. Nepal's National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center, which put the magnitude at 6.4, estimates that more than 150 aftershocks hit the affected regions on Saturday.

When the earth began to shake shortly before midnight, most of the inhabitants were sleeping in their homes, many of which were of poor quality, made of stones and logs, or even dirt. Images of the disaster show buildings collapsed like houses of cards, with entire families buried under them. Thousands of buildings are said to have been destroyed, and most of the victims are thought to have died under the rubble. In the two hardest-hit districts, most of the damage occurred in areas where homes had been built on sloping ground.

Difficult access to disaster areas

"Most of the destroyed house are reportedly in Jajarkot and Rukum, with the geographic remoteness of the two districts and the lack of communication challenging rescue and relief efforts," reported the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Saturday, November 4. In this mountainous region, many villages can only be reached on foot, and access to some affected areas, such as Jajarkot, has reportedly been "inhibited by landslides triggered by the earthquake," the OCHA added.

The Nepalese authorities ended the search for survivors on Sunday, and are continuing to help those who have already been pulled from the rubble. Many of them spent Saturday night in the cold.

Nepalese prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal arrived in the affected area on Saturday, and declared "The government is determined to help the victims and care for the injured." As for Indian president Narendra Modi, he said he was "deeply saddened" and pledged his country's readiness "to provide all possible assistance."

Nepal is regularly shaken by temblors; Its territory lies in the Himalayas, on a major geological fault where the Indian tectonic plate is sinking several centimeters a year under the Eurasian plate. Since the beginning of 2023 alone, Nepal's National Seismic Monitoring and Research Center has recorded more than 70 temblors over magnitude 4.

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