Round 500 individuals have been killed and 1000 extra injured in an earthquake that struck japanese Afghanistan on Monday.
Ali Khara | Reuters
One among Afghanistan’s worst earthquakes killed greater than 800 individuals and injured no less than 2,800, authorities mentioned on Monday, as rescuers struggled to succeed in distant areas as a result of tough mountainous terrain and inclement climate.
The catastrophe will additional stretch the sources of the war-torn nation’s Taliban administration, already grappling with crises starting from a pointy drop in international support to deportations of a whole lot of 1000’s of Afghans by neighboring nations.
Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the well being ministry in Kabul, known as for worldwide support to sort out the devastation wrought by the quake of magnitude 6 that struck round midnight native time, at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).
“We want it as a result of right here numerous individuals misplaced their lives and homes,” he instructed Reuters.
The quake killed 812 individuals within the japanese provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned.
Ziaul Haq Mohammadi, a scholar at Al-Falah College within the japanese metropolis of Jalalabad, was learning in his room at residence when the quake struck. He mentioned he tried to face up however was knocked over by the ability of the tremor.
“We spent the entire night time in worry and anxiousness as a result of at any second one other earthquake may occur,” Mohammadi mentioned.
Mudbrick properties collapse
Rescuers have been battling to succeed in distant mountainous areas reduce off from cellular networks alongside the Pakistani border, the place mudbrick properties dotting the slopes collapsed within the quake.
“The realm of the earthquake was affected by heavy rain within the final 24-48 hours as effectively, so the chance of landslides and rock slides can also be fairly vital – that’s the reason most of the roads are impassable,” Kate Carey, an officer on the U.N. Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), instructed Reuters.
Rescue groups and authorities are attempting to eliminate animal carcasses rapidly in order to attenuate the chance of contamination to water sources, Carey mentioned.
Afghan males seek for their belongings amidst the rubble of a collapsed home after a lethal magnitude-6 earthquake that struck Afghanistan round midnight, in Dara Mazar, in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Sept. 1, 2025.
Stringer | Reuters
Casualties may rise as rescue groups entry extra remoted areas, authorities mentioned.
“All our … groups have been mobilized to speed up help, in order that complete and full assist may be offered,” mentioned well being ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee, citing efforts in areas from safety to meals and well being.
Reuters Tv pictures confirmed helicopters ferrying out the affected, whereas residents helped safety forces and medics carry the wounded to ambulances in an space with an extended historical past of earthquakes and floods.
Army rescue groups fanned out throughout the area, the defence ministry mentioned, with 40 flights carrying away 420 wounded and lifeless.
The quake razed three villages in Kunar, with substantial injury in lots of others, authorities mentioned. At the least 610 individuals have been killed in Kunar with 12 lifeless in Nangarhar, they added.
Some villagers sat weeping amid the piled ruins of their properties. Others started laboriously clearing the particles by hand, or carried out the injured on makeshift stretchers.
“That is Mazar Dara in Nurgal district. The whole village has been destroyed,” one sufferer instructed reporters. “Youngsters and elders are trapped underneath the rubble. We want pressing assist.”
One other survivor mentioned: “We want ambulances, we want medical doctors, we want all the things to rescue the injured and recuperate the lifeless.”
It was Afghanistan’s third main lethal quake because the Taliban took over in 2021 as international forces withdrew, triggering a reduce to the worldwide funding that fashioned the majority of presidency funds.
Diplomats and support officers say crises elsewhere on the planet, together with donor frustration over the Taliban’s insurance policies in direction of ladies, together with curbs on those that are support staff, have spurred the cuts in funding.
Even humanitarian support, geared toward bypassing political establishments to serve pressing wants, has shrunk to $767 million this 12 months, down from $3.8 billion in 2022.
Appeals for funding
Humanitarian businesses say they’re combating a forgotten disaster in Afghanistan, the place the United Nations estimates greater than half the inhabitants is in pressing want of humanitarian support.
“Up to now, no international governments have reached out to supply assist for rescue or aid work,” a spokesperson of Afghanistan’s international workplace mentioned on Monday.
Later, a spokesperson for China’s international ministry mentioned it was prepared to supply catastrophe aid help “in response to Afghanistan’s wants and inside its capability”.
In the meantime, International Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of India mentioned it had delivered 1,000 household tents to Kabul and was shifting 15 tonnes of meals materials to Kunar, with extra aid materials to be despatched from India beginning on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Division’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs posted its condolences on X on Monday for the lack of life within the earthquake, however didn’t instantly reply when requested if america would offer any help.
Afghanistan has been badly affected since U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in January started slashing funding to its humanitarian arm, USAID, and support applications worldwide as a part of a broader plan to finish what it deems wasteful spending.
U.N. Secretary Normal Antonio Guterres mentioned its mission in Afghanistan was getting ready to assist these in areas devastated by the quake. Pope Leo additionally despatched condolences for the lifeless.
Afghanistan is vulnerable to lethal earthquakes, notably within the Hindu Kush mountain vary, the place the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake that killed 1,000 individuals within the japanese area in 2022 was the primary main pure catastrophe confronted by the Taliban authorities.