More than 800 dead in Afghanistan earthquake
The magnitude 6 earthquake shook the east of the country and also caused at least 2,500 injuries.
BarcelonaA devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, leaving at least 800 dead, government spokesman Mawlawi Zabihullah Mujahid said. He warned at a press conference Monday that the death toll could rise. The magnitude 6.0 quake also injured more than 2,500 people.
The earthquake struck the rugged eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar. Those affected are being transported by helicopter to the regional hospital in Jalalabad, while the search for survivors continues in the affected areas. Hundreds of injured people have already been taken to hospitals, and the death toll is expected to rise as the tragedy occurred in remote and hard-to-reach areas, complicating rescue efforts.
Health Minister Sharafat Zaman confirmed that three villages in Kunar province have been devastated and many others have sustained substantial damage. This province bordering Pakistan is where the devastation is concentrated, in the valleys of the Hindu Kush mountain range, where most residents live in houses made of mud and straw.
Initial official reports indicate that in just one village there may have been 30 deaths and hundreds injured. The United Nations, the Afghan Red Crescent, and the Taliban government have launched a massive rescue operation in response to this devastating earthquake. The Ministry of Defense has sent 30 doctors and 800 kilos of medicine to Kunar to support hospitals overwhelmed with victims.
Eight kilometers deep
The U.S. Geological Survey has located the epicenter of the main quake 27 kilometers east of Nangarhar province, on the border with Pakistan, and at a depth of eight kilometers, which usually amplifies the power of destruction. The initial earthquake was recorded on Sunday at 11:47 p.m. (local time), and at least two aftershocks of magnitude 5.2 were produced.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindukush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. The last one was in October 2023, when a magnitude 6.3 quake struck the western province of Herat and left more than 2,000 dead, the deadliest in the last two decades. In 1998, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in northeastern Afghanistan killed at least 4,500 people.
The affected area, in particular, was already subject to a serious humanitarian crisis, where a large part of the houses are made with very vulnerable constructions, despite the fact that this area has suffered multiple earthquakes and floods throughout its history.
