EDITOR’S NOTE: This story comprises a disturbing picture.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have referred to as for worldwide help after an enormous earthquake killed lots of of individuals and leveled whole villages, piling additional distress on the war-ravaged nation that was already grappling with meals shortages and cuts to foreign help.
At least 1,124 individuals had been killed and 3,251 others had been injured after the 6.0-magnitude quake struck cities and villages near the Pakistan border on Sunday, inflicting sturdy aftershocks in Kabul, the Afghan Red Crescent Society reported on Tuesday.
Heavy rain, landslides and broken roads have made it troublesome for aid groups to entry the distant mountainous areas hit hardest by the quake.
Meanwhile, current US help cuts have crunched aid efforts in the nation, which has been contending with shrinking international help since the Taliban seized management in 2021, imposing harsh guidelines and punishments on the nation’s 43 million individuals.
Here’s what we know about the earthquake and the rescue operation.
The earthquake hit simply earlier than midnight 27 kilometers (16.77 miles) north-east of Jalalabad, a bustling metropolis of about 200,000 individuals in Nangarhar Province close to the border with Pakistan, in a mountainous space recognized for its seismic exercise, in accordance with the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The quake was comparatively shallow with a depth of about 8km (4.97 miles), in accordance with the USGS. Shallow earthquakes are typically extra harmful.
The earthquake devastated neighboring Kunar province, razing three villages, Reuters reported, citing native authorities. Damage and accidents had been additionally reported in Laghman, Nuristan and Panjshir provinces, in accordance with the Taliban authorities and humanitarian staff.
The earthquake was additionally felt in a number of cities in neighboring Pakistan, the Pakistan Meteorological Department stated in a press release.
The area was hit by at the least 5 aftershocks, the strongest measuring 5.2-magnitude in the hours after the preliminary quake, in accordance with USGS.
This is the third main quake to hit since 2021 in Afghanistan, which faces a litany of artificial and pure disasters, together with poverty, battle, drought, and the pressured return of thousands and thousands of refugees by neighbors Pakistan and Iran.
Powerful earthquakes in 2022 and 2023 killed greater than 3,000 individuals in Afghanistan’s Paktika and Herat provinces, by some estimates.
Nearly half one million individuals doubtless felt sturdy to very sturdy shaking, which may end up in appreciable harm to poorly constructed constructions, in accordance with the USGS.
Yousaf Hammad, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, stated the variety of lifeless and injured is prone to rise.
“The injured are being evacuated, so these figures may change significantly,” he instructed the AP.
Photos from the aftermath confirmed rows of brick homes swept below muddy particles, as residents clambered over enormous piles of fallen concrete.
Eyewitnesses recalled fumbling for family members caught below collapsed houses, as they waited hours for emergency staff to achieve the worst-affected areas, in accordance with the AP.
“I was half-buried and unable to get out,” Sadiqullah, a resident of Nurgal, in Kunar province, instructed AP. His spouse and two sons had been killed, he added.
Ahmad Zameer, 41, a resident of Kabul, greater than 100 miles from the epicenter, instructed NCS the earthquake jolted his neighborhood. He added that everybody from the close by house buildings rushed into the avenue in worry of being trapped inside.
Videos obtained by NCS present males digging with shovels to go looking for survivors below the rubble in Kunar province. Others confirmed chaotic scenes as officers labored to stretcher the wounded onto helicopters to be airlifted to hospital.
The war-ravaged nation is in the throes of a humanitarian disaster that has solely worsened since the Taliban seized energy in 2021 following a chaotic United States withdrawal.
Many worldwide help teams, cautious of collaborating with a repressive regime recognized for its persecution of women and girls, have since pulled out of the nation.
Earlier this 12 months, the White House halted greater than $1.7 billion price of American help contracts supporting dozens of packages in Afghanistan. The United Kingdom, France and Germany swiftly adopted swimsuit.
Humanitarian help to Afghanistan shrank to $767 million in 2025, down from $3.8 billion in 2022, in accordance with Reuters.
Thamindri De Silva, National Director of World Vision Afghanistan, stated the sheer variety of challenges dealing with the nation has made it troublesome for humanitarian organizations to assist Afghans.
“This is not the first shock that we’ve faced this year. We’re undergoing a drought. We’re supporting the returnee response. We’re still working with the earthquake-affected people in Herat. There’s a huge malnutrition crisis in the country,” De Silva instructed NCS’s Lynda Kinkade.
“So it’s not just the funding shortfalls, it’s the compounding of shock after shock in the country, which is stretching already very thin resources.”
Body luggage are one in all the biggest wants when it comes to provides, she stated, as effectively as primary requirements, such as clothes, hygiene merchandise, and cooking gear.
The Taliban have appealed to the world for extra help to assist aid efforts, however to this point, few international locations have stepped up.
“We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses,” well being ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman instructed Reuters.
The UK on Tuesday introduced £1 million ($1.3 million) in new emergency funding to assist households affected by the earthquake, to be cut up between the UN Population Fund and the International Red Cross.
“The UK remains grateful to the aid workers on the ground, who help us to provide support to Afghanistan’s most vulnerable people,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement.
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry stated it was prepared to offer catastrophe aid help “according to Afghanistan’s needs and within its capacity,” Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, India delivered 1,000 household tents to Kabul and 15 metric tons of meals help to Kunar, with extra aid to return, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar stated in accordance with Reuters.
The US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs prolonged “heartfelt condolences to the Afghan people” in a post to X, however there was no speedy phrase of help from the US.