Authorities and rescuers in Afghanistan scrambled on Monday to save survivors after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake and succeeding aftershocks levelled houses and left more than 800 dead.
The United States Geological Survey recorded the quake at a shallow depth of eight kilometres (six miles) at 11:47pm local time, with its epicentre near Jalalabad in Nangarhar province.
The quake is Afghanistan’s deadliest since October 2023 – when a magnitude-6.3 event killed at least 1,500 people – and comes at a time when the nation is grappling with an ongoing humanitarian crisis that could hamper rescue efforts.
Rescue efforts underway
The Taliban-run Afghan interior ministry said there could be more than 2,500 injured people.
At least 800 people have been confirmed dead in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, but officials fear the death toll may rise further.
Ministry spokesperson Abdul Maten Qanee told Reuters they have already mobilised teams to ramp up assistance and provide full support to affected areas.
That support is being stretched to the capital Kabul, where rescuers are racing against time to reach remote hamlets.
In the regions devastated most by the earthquake, the defence ministry said about 40 flights have been launched to carry both the injured and the dead.
But a report from the Taliban’s state-run Bakhtar News Agency, cited by CNN, said relief teams are struggling to reach some isolated communities due to landslides and destroyed roads.
Additionally, the earthquake was felt as far as neighbouring Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces and hit several cities there, according to a Pakistan Meteorological Department’s statement.
At least five aftershocks were recorded, including a 5.2-magnitude quake that struck after 4am.
The United Nations (UN) in Afghanistan expressed its condolences and vowed to deliver emergency assistance on the ground.
“I stand in full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier today,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in an online statement.
The Japanese embassy likewise offered aid, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, China said it would provide assistance in line with “Afghanistan’s needs and within its capacity”.
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Afghanistan’s earthquake plight
Afghanistan, it must be said, is no stranger to earthquakes.
It is particularly prone to them in the Hindu Kush mountain range because of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates there, according to Agence-France Presse.
The western Herat province was hit by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in October 2023, killing more than 1,500 people and destroying over 63,000 houses.
Preceding that, in June 2022, the eastern border province of Paktika was struck by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that left at least 1,000 dead and tens of thousands without a home.
Moreover, while Afghanistan reels from the latest deadly earthquake, it is also dealing with an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has seen foreign aid slashed since the Taliban seized back power in the country in 2021.
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Adam Peaker 
Newsjustnews writers 
Carmela Calling