Magnitude 6 earthquake in eastern Afghanistan leaves at least 800...

A powerful earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan has left more than 800 people dead and injured about 2,500, according to Taliban officials. The magnitude 6 earthquake hit four provinces in eastern Afghanistan around midnight on Sunday, with the rugged, mountainous region of Kunar the worst affected, triggering landslides and flooding. The earthquake was shallow, taking place close to the Earth’s surface, which is known to cause greater destruction. Several aftershocks were reported throughout the night and into Monday morning, which could even be felt in the capital, Kabul, more than 100 miles away. The Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that the death toll had exceeded 800 by Monday afternoon and that rescue efforts were continuing to recover those trapped beneath mud and debris. However, those efforts were hampered as roads to affected areas were destroyed or blocked by rubble from the earthquake, and the terrain of the region is steep and treacherous. The death toll is expected to rise significantly as local hospitals report being inundated with casualties and hundreds still remain unaccounted for. Medics at the provincial hospital in Asadabad in Kunar described the situation as an overwhelming crisis, with new patients arriving every few minutes. Rasheed Khan, a 40-year-old cloth merchant in Kabul, originally from Kunar’s Watpur village, said his wife, children and brothers were among the dead. “It’s doomsday for me. I have lost my wife, three children, and two brothers, and I don’t know what has happened to my other relatives and fellow villagers,” he said while returning to his native village from Kabul. “I fear thousands still remain trapped under the rubble, and I don’t know if they will be saved or not,” said Khan. Abdul Rahim, a local cleric, said local graveyards were now overflowing with the dead. “At the local graveyards in Mazar Valley, people are crying and embracing one another following a mass funeral, devastated by the floods and the earthquake,” he said. “The death toll is so high that graveyards are overflowing, and local people are busy digging graves in advance as bodies arrive every half hour.” Afghanistan’s defence ministry said it had dispatched 30 doctors and truckloads of medicine to Kunar to assist local hospitals, according to the state-run Bakhtar news agency. The Taliban also urged humanitarian organisations to assist with rescue efforts in areas that can only be accessed by air because of the landslides and flooding. A Taliban leader, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, who heads the state ministry for national disaster management, arrived in Kunar on Monday to oversee the crisis response efforts, according to Bakhtar. Kunar is a poor, mountainous region where homes are primarily constructed of mud and rocks. The epicentre of the earthquake was close to the bustling trade city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan. Swaths of the city’s buildings are low-rise and informal constructions, mostly made of concrete and brick, which are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. Muhammad Aziz, a labourer from Kunar’s Nur Gul district, said 10 of his relatives, including his five children, had been killed in the earthquake and many people from his village remained trapped under the rubble. “The poor people in this area have lost everything,” he said. “There is death in every home, and beneath the rubble of each roof, there are dead bodies. The mud houses have been wiped away, and destruction is everywhere. People are desperately seeking help.” In Laghman province, officials reported at least 30 injuries, mostly among women. Tremors were also felt in Nuristan, but damage assessments there are still pending. Afghanistan is grappling with a severe economic crisis, exacerbated by the suspension of US foreign aid earlier this year and the forced return of more than 2 million Afghan nationals from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. According to the United Nations, more than half of Afghanistan’s 42 million population is already in need of humanitarian assistance. Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Afghanistan on 7 October 2023, followed by strong aftershocks. The Taliban government estimated that at least 4,000 people perished. The UN gave a far lower death toll of about 1,500. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.