Powerful earthquake leaves more than 800 dead in eastern Afghanistan

At least 800 people have died and more than 2,500 have been injured after a powerful magnitude 6 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest nations, on Sunday night.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) located the epicenter of the main earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.0, 27 kilometers (16.8 miles) east of Nangarhar province and at a depth of eight kilometers (five miles). This is considered a very shallow earthquake, which are typically more destructive.

The Afghan Government’s Information and Media Center confirmed at least 800 deaths and 2,500 injuries in Kunar province, the hardest-hit area; 12 deaths and 255 injuries in Nangarhar; 58 injured in Laghman; and four more in Nuristan.

In Kabul, the capital, health authorities reported that rescue teams are racing against time to reach remote villages in a region with a long history of earthquakes and floods. A Taliban spokesperson said in a brief statement on X that “local officials and residents are currently engaged in rescue efforts for the affected people,” and that “support teams from the center and nearby provinces are also on their way.”

The earthquake — the most severe in Afghanistan since October 2023, when more than 1,500 people died following a series of tremors — has triggered numerous landslides, blocking the already limited road network and completely isolating dozens of villages.

Homes vulnerable to quakes

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has deployed personnel to provide “emergency assistance and vital support.” Meanwhile, the Afghan Red Crescent has sent medical teams to the epicenter of the destruction in Kunar, a remote province bordering Pakistan, nestled in the valleys of the Hindu Kush mountain range — an area particularly prone to earthquakes — where the majority of the population lives in fragile mud-and-straw homes. These structures are extremely vulnerable to seismic activity.

In Kunar, three villages have been completely destroyed, and many others have suffered severe damage, according to the Afghan Ministry of Health. Up to 40 flights have departed from Nangarhar to evacuate the injured.

Impoverished nation

The country’s structural fragility, worsened by decades of conflict and a lack of infrastructure, has been further compounded by a dramatic drop in international aid and the expulsion of Afghans from neighboring countries. Together, these factors have magnified the disaster’s impact.

Pakistan, one of the countries receiving these migratory flows, launched several raids on Monday — just hours after the earthquake — to deport Afghan refugees after the government’s deadline for voluntary departure from the country had expired.

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