The western Afghan province of Herat was rocked by another earthquake overnight, sending many of the region’s residents, already reeling from a series of major tremblors over the past two weeks, back into the streets.

The 4.4-magnitude event early on October 23 was the fifth major earthquake to hit the region since October 7, when a 6.3-magnitude quake killed more than 1,500 people and injured more than 2,100 others. Major aftershocks on October 11, 13, and 15 have caused additional damage and displaced more than 100,000 people.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed due to the earthquakes and aftershocks, leaving many people living in makeshift shelters or even among the rubble as cold weather moves in and landslides have been reported.

“It is a serious problem for the residents of Herat, as many spent another night on the streets after this tremor,” Ahmadullah Muttaqi, a Taliban spokesman in Herat, told Radio Azadi after the October 23 earthquake, which followed a warning by aid agencies that women, the worst victims of the tremors, are finding it difficult to access international aid being offered to the victims and survivors.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on October 23 that more than 80 tons of medical supplies arrived in Kabul a day earlier, including supplies for pregnant women and children who have fallen ill due to a lack of clean water.

“The medical supplies that arrived in Kabul today are a lifeline for thousands of children and families in need of immediate, life-saving assistance in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes,” said Fran Equiza, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.

The earthquakes are some of the worst to hit the country, already suffering from multiple humanitarian crises brought on by drought and poverty, in more than 25 years.

Exacerbating the difficulties for women — around 60 percent of the dead are said to be women — are the policies of the Taliban rulers, who since returning to power in August 2021 have restricted access to education, employment, and public life for females.

The UN said in a report on October 21 that women were struggling to obtain humanitarian aid without male relatives or identity documents. The absence of female aid workers because of the Taliban’s ban on Afghan women’s employment by aid groups is also hampering their access to what they need to help survive the disasters.

“The earthquakes, when combined with the ongoing humanitarian and women’s rights crisis, have made the situation not only difficult for women and girls, but deadly,” Alison Davidian, the UN special representative for women in Afghanistan, told the Associated Press.

“When natural disasters strike, women and girls are impacted most and often considered least in crisis response and recovery,” she added.

Last week, the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) appealed for $19 million to provide emergency food aid to 100,000 in Herat.

“We are having to take this food from an already severely underfunded program,” said Ana Maria Salhuana, deputy country director of the WFP in Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, the WFP reduced food aid to millions of Afghans because of massive funding shortfalls.