Death toll from Afghanistan earthquake surpasses 900 as search for survivors intensifies
Afghanistan earthquake toll surpasses 900 as rescuers race to reach survivors
Rescuers searched desperately on Tuesday for survivors trapped beneath the rubble of homes flattened by a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that has killed more than 900 people.
The 6.0-magnitude quake, followed by at least five aftershocks, struck remote mountainous provinces near the Pakistani border around midnight on Sunday. Entire villages built from mud and stone were reduced to rubble.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, head of the Kunar Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said rescue operations continued through the night but noted that many of the injured in distant villages were still awaiting evacuation.
Villagers joined rescue teams, digging through debris with their bare hands. “I’m searching here, but I didn’t see him,” said Obaidullah Stoman, 26, who came to Wadir to look for a friend. “It was very difficult for me to see the conditions here. There is only rubble left.”
Bodies, including children, were wrapped in white shrouds and buried in hastily dug graves. Some of the worst-hit areas remain inaccessible due to blocked roads, the UN migration agency reported.
The quake’s epicentre was located about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from Jalalabad at a shallow depth of eight kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey. Shallow earthquakes often cause more severe damage.
Afghanistan, already crippled by decades of conflict and aid cuts, faces enormous challenges in responding to the disaster. Since the US withdrawal in 2021, foreign funding has been sharply reduced, with the United Nations also scaling back its humanitarian plans earlier this year due to historic funding shortages.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the organisation was working with Afghan authorities to assess needs and deliver emergency relief, announcing an initial $5 million in aid.
The interim government reported at least 900 deaths and 3,000 injured across Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman provinces. Many victims were recent returnees from Pakistan and Iran, living in fragile mud-brick homes.
“There is a lot of fear and tension. Children and women were screaming. We had never experienced anything like this in our lives,” said Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad, an agricultural official in Nurgal.
Afghanistan sits on a major seismic fault line and is highly prone to earthquakes. In October 2023, a 6.3-magnitude quake devastated Herat province, killing more than 1,500 people, while a 2022 tremor in Paktika killed more than 1,000.
