Third Quake Strikes Afghanistan; Deaths Top 2,200

By Staff, Agencies

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has shaken Afghanistan as the death toll from the devastating quake on Sunday rose to more than 2,200.

It struck south-eastern regions on Thursday night, according to the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany. It was not immediately clear how much damage there was.

A 5.5 magnitude aftershock struck on Tuesday, causing panic and interrupting rescue efforts as more roads were cut off by rock fall.

Hamdullah Fitrat, a Taliban spokesperson, confirmed on Thursday that the death toll from Sunday’s magnitude 6.0 earthquake had risen to 2,205 – up from previous estimates of 1,400 and making it one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the country in decades.

The midnight quake devastated remote eastern part of the country, especially Kunar province, leveling villages and trapping residents under rubble due to fragile wooden and mud brick homes.

Rescuers have managed to reach villages that had been completely cut off by the disaster and bodies continued to be pulled from debris on Thursday.

About 98% of the buildings in Kunar were damaged or destroyed, according to an assessment from the charity, Islamic Relief.

The rough and mountainous terrain has been hindering relief efforts. Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help locate and rescue survivors. Aid workers reported walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall.

Resident Muhammad Israel described a landslide burying his home and livestock in Kunar. He barely escaped with his children and now lives without shelter at a UN camp, as aftershocks continue.

Rescue efforts are stalled due to a sharp drop in international aid since the Taliban’s 2021 return and their strict restrictions on NGOs.

Aid groups urgently need staff and supplies to assist 84,000 affected, many homeless and lacking food and water.

The Norwegian Refugee Council now has under 450 staff in Afghanistan, down from 1,100 in 2023, with just one warehouse and no emergency supplies.

“We will need to purchase items once we get the funding but this will take potentially weeks and people are in need now,” said Maisam Shafiey, a communications and advocacy adviser for the council in Afghanistan.

“We have only $100,000 [£75,000] available to support emergency response efforts. This leaves an immediate funding gap of $1.9m.”

Dr. Shamshair Khan at the UN camp in Nurgal said supplies are running low, with urgent need for more medicine, tents, food, and clean water to aid those in great pain.

The earthquakes struck amid drought and economic crisis, worsened by US aid cuts that led to many hospital closures in Afghanistan.

The pressures on the country have been exacerbated by the forced return of more than 2 million Afghans from neighboring Pakistan and Iran, many of whom have nowhere to live or work.