Afghan burqa-clad women and children take refuge outside after fleeing their homes after an earthquake in Kunar province. Photo / AFP
Rescue teams have struggled to reach survivors days after a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.
Access to remote areas remained obstructed after the magnitude 6.0 shallow earthquake hit the mountainous region bordering Pakistan late on Sunday (local time), collapsing mud-brick homes on families as they slept.
Fearful of the near-constant aftershocks rattling the area, people huddled in the open air while others struggled to unearth those trapped under the rubble of flattened buildings.
The earthquake killed 1469 people and injured more than 3700, according to the latest toll from Taliban authorities, making it one of the deadliest in decades to hit the impoverished country.
UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on X that the earthquake had “affected more than 500,000 people” in eastern Afghanistan.
More than 1450 of the casualties – were in Kunar province, with a dozen dead and hundreds hurt in nearby Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.
Access remained difficult, as aftershocks caused rockfalls, stymying access to already isolated villages and keeping families outdoors for fear of the remains of damaged homes collapsing on them.
“Everyone is afraid and there are many aftershocks,” Awrangzeeb Noori, 35, told AFP from the village of Dara-i-Nur in Nangarhar province. “We spend all day and night in the field without shelter.”
The non-governmental group Save the Children said one of its aid teams “had to walk for 20km to reach villages cut off by rockfalls, carrying medical equipment on their backs with the help of community members”.
The UN’s World Food Programme shared images of teams hiking up slopes carrying boxes of food aid on their shoulders.
The Taliban Government’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat told AFP that areas that had taken days to reach had been finally accessed.
“We cannot determine the date for finishing the operation in all areas as the area is very mountainous and it is very difficult to reach every area.”
ActionAid noted that women and girls were particularly vulnerable in emergencies as they face steep restrictions under the Taliban authorities.
Residents of Jalalabad, the nearest city to the quake epicentre, donated money and goods such as blankets to be delivered to those impacted by the tremor.
“I am a simple labourer and I came here to help the earthquake victims because I felt very sad for them,” said resident Mohammad Rahman.
“If I could do more, I would help even more, but I helped with what I had.”
Around 85% of the Afghan population lives on less than one dollar a day, according to the United Nations.
After decades of conflict, Afghanistan is facing endemic poverty, severe drought and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran in the years since the Taliban takeover.
Even as the country reeled from its latest disaster, Pakistan began a new push to expel Afghans, with more than 6300 people crossing the Torkham border point in Nangarhar province on Tuesday.
“Given the circumstances, I appeal to the [Pakistan government] to pause the implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,” UNHCR chief Grandi said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council also cautioned that “forcing Afghans to return will only deepen the crisis”.
It is the third major earthquake since the Taliban authorities took power in 2021, but there are even fewer resources for the cash-strapped Government’s response after the United States slashed assistance to the country when President Donald Trump took office in January.
Even before the earthquake, the UN estimated it had less than a third of the funding required for operations countrywide.
In two days, the Taliban Government’s Defence Ministry said it organised 155 helicopter flights to evacuate around 2000 injured and their relatives to regional hospitals.
Fitrat said a camp had been set up in Khas Kunar district to co-ordinate emergency aid, while two sites were opened near the epicentre “to oversee the transfer of the injured, the burial of the dead, and the rescue of survivors”.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes and is still recovering from previous disasters.
Western Herat province was devastated in October 2023 by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 1500 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.
A 5.9-magnitude quake struck the eastern province of Paktika in June 2022, killing more than 1000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
- Agence France-Presse