An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 hit an isolated mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border at about midnight local time (3:30 p.m. ET Sunday), reported the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake’s center was located 17 miles from the eastern city of Jalalabad at a shallow depth of 5 miles, where even less intense quakes can result in significant damage.
Afghanistan is especially vulnerable to earthquakes as it sits on top of several fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian plates meet.
Taliban officials have indicated that Kunar province along the border has recorded most of the fatalities. People reside in steep valleys within inadequately built homes using mud bricks and wood.
“Families, including children, were sleeping when their homes, not designed to withstand strong tremors, were struck,” commented Samira Sayed Rahman, Advocacy Director at Save the Children Afghanistan. “Rock falls have obstructed roads, isolating villages and slowing down rescue efforts.”
The United Nations’ coordinator for Afghanistan highlighted the primary challenge as accessing these isolated regions due to severely damaged roads. “There have been numerous landslides and rockfalls, severely restricting access to everyone in the critical first 24 hours,” noted Indrika Ratwatte during a press conference in Kabul.
According to a report from the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Monday, up to 12,000 individuals are estimated to be directly impacted by the earthquake. The report also cautioned that the death toll is likely to increase as rescuers continue their search operations.
The Taliban, which seized control of the country in 2021, has called for international aid to tackle the devastation.
That is complicated, as most countries do not recognize the Taliban’s rule. Last month, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said the Taliban uses its regulatory power to determine which NGOs can work in Afghanistan and how, determining where the aid goes.
The Taliban denies diverting aid.
Nonetheless, some countries have offered help in the wake of the quake, including China and the U.K., which said Monday it would provide nearly $1.3 million in assistance split among a few aid agencies.
But the U.S., which supplied nearly half of all humanitarian aid to Afghanistan until last year, has yet to announce any aid after axing an estimated $1.7 billion of aid contracts to Afghanistan under President Donald Trump.
This is the third major earthquake in Afghanistan since the U.S. pullout.
Around 1,000 people were killed and thousands more injured in 2022 when a shallow 5.9-magnitude earthquake also hit eastern Afghanistan.
A year later, about 4,000 people were killed in the western Afghanistan province of Herat from three 6.3-magnitude quakes. The United Nations had issued a lower death tally for that quake at nearly 1,500.
Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been ravaged by years of conflict, including a two-decade war between the Taliban and the U.S.
Since coming back to power, the Taliban has struggled to gain international legitimacy at a time when Afghanistan is facing food challenges after four consecutive years of drought and the influx of over 2 million Afghans from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
