One of Afghanistan’s deadliest earthquakes in decades has killed at least 812 people and injured more than 2,800, authorities confirmed on Monday, as rescue teams battled to reach isolated mountain communities blocked by heavy rains, landslides, and difficult terrain.
The magnitude-6 tremor struck around midnight at a depth of 10 kilometres, devastating mudbrick villages in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar.
The disaster compounds the pressures on the Taliban government, which is already struggling with dwindling foreign aid, mass deportations of Afghan migrants from neighbouring countries, and an economy in crisis.
Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the health ministry in Kabul, urged the world to step in. “We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses,” he told Reuters.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the quake destroyed three villages in Kunar, killing 610 people there and 12 more in Nangarhar. Authorities fear the toll will climb as more remote areas are reached.
Military rescue teams were deployed across the region, with the defence ministry reporting 40 flights that evacuated 420 victims, both wounded and dead.
Footage shared by Reuters showed helicopters ferrying out casualties as residents, soldiers, and medics carried the injured to ambulances in a region long prone to quakes and floods.
Rescue work has been slowed by ongoing rainfall. “The area of the earthquake was affected by heavy rain in the last 24-48 hours as well, so the risk of landslides and rock slides is also quite significant – that is why many of the roads are impassable,” said Kate Carey, an officer at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
She added that teams were working quickly to dispose of animal carcasses to avoid contamination of water supplies.
Ziaul Haq Mohammadi, a student at Al-Falah University in Jalalabad, said he was studying when the quake struck. “I tried to stand up but was knocked over by the power of the tremor,” he said.
“We spent the whole night in fear and anxiety because at any moment another earthquake could happen,” Mohammadi added.
Survivors described entire communities being wiped out. “This is Mazar Dara in Nurgal district. The entire village has been destroyed,” one victim said. “Children and elders are trapped under the rubble. We need urgent help.”
Another survivor added: “We need ambulances, we need doctors, we need everything to rescue the injured and recover the dead.”
Humanitarian Strain
Authorities say all available resources are being deployed. “All our … teams have been mobilised to accelerate assistance, so that comprehensive and full support can be provided,” said health ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee.
But Afghanistan’s humanitarian capacity is limited. Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, foreign funding has fallen sharply, with humanitarian aid dropping to $767 million this year from $3.8 billion in 2022.
Donor fatigue, global crises elsewhere, and Taliban restrictions on women, including female aid workers, have worsened the shortfall.
Diplomats and aid officials warn that Afghanistan is facing a “forgotten crisis,” with the United Nations estimating more than half of the population in urgent need of help.
“So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work,” a foreign office spokesperson said on Monday.
China later pledged to provide assistance “according to Afghanistan’s needs and within its capacity,” while India announced the delivery of 1,000 family tents to Kabul and 15 tonnes of food aid to Kunar, with further relief shipments planned.
The U.S. State Department expressed condolences for the victims but has not confirmed whether it will provide assistance.
A Vulnerable Land
This is the third major earthquake since the Taliban seized power, underscoring Afghanistan’s vulnerability. The country lies on a seismic fault line in the Hindu Kush mountains, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in 2022 killed 1,000 people in the east, becoming the first large-scale natural disaster faced by the Taliban government.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the organisation’s mission in Afghanistan was preparing to assist affected areas, while Pope Leo also extended condolences.
As survivors dig through rubble with their bare hands and carry the wounded on makeshift stretchers, the urgent calls for international aid grow louder in a nation still reeling from years of conflict, poverty, and isolation.
