A magnitude 6.0 earthquake that struck late Sunday night near the epicentre of the tremor devastated isolated regions in mountainous provinces close to the Pakistani border.
Afghanistan’s east was shaken Tuesday by a new 5.2-magnitude earthquake, which comes as the area is still dealing with the fallout from a strong one that killed 1,400 people over the weekend.
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake that struck late Sunday night near the epicentre of the tremor devastated isolated regions in mountainous provinces close to the Pakistani border.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, the province’s disaster management spokesperson, told AFP that the “quake was felt in the same areas which were affected in Kunar (province) in the first earthquake.”
“These aftershocks are constant, but they have not caused any casualties yet.”
The US Geological Survey recorded the earthquake late Tuesday.
According to main Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, the death toll from Sunday’s earthquake has been rapidly rising, with 1,411 people dead and 3,124 injured in Kunar alone, making it one of the deadliest to strike the nation in decades.
In the nearby province of Nangarhar, another dozen people lost their lives and hundreds were injured.
Afghanistan is among the world’s poorest nations, and since the Taliban took over in 2021, help has decreased, making it more difficult to respond to natural calamities.
“Hundreds of thousands” could be impacted by the destruction, according to Indrika Ratwatte, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.
More than 5,400 homes were demolished in Kunar, and rescuers combed through the debris all day and night for survivors, government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said on X.
According to Fitrat, other nations had pledged to offer relief, and emergency facilities were being established, even though many of the most severely hit districts were still inaccessible by road.
To aid victims of the catastrophic earthquake, the European Union announced that it will be sending 130 tonnes of emergency supplies and one million euros ($1.2 million).
After President Donald Trump took office in January, the United States, which had previously been the top aid giver to Afghanistan, reduced all but a portion of its help, making the EU one of the major aid contributors to the country.
In a nation already dealing with one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world following decades of conflict, industry experts told AFP that the aid cuts run the risk of obstructing the response to the earthquake.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement that “the scale of need far exceeds current resources” and that funding cuts had affected humanitarian aviation services, “limiting access to remote communities.”
Villagers joined the rescue attempts, clearing rubble from mud and stone homes built into steep valleys with their bare hands as emergency personnel found it difficult to reach high places.
The extent of the damage overwhelmed 26-year-old Obaidullah Stoman, who had come to the village of Wadir in quest of a friend.
“I looked about, but I couldn’t find him. “Seeing the conditions here was really tough for me,” he told AFP.
“There is only rubble left.”
Before being buried, the locals prayed over the remains of the deceased, including children, and covered them with white shrouds.
‘Whole home collapsed’
According to the USGS, the epicentre of the earthquake occurred only eight kilometers below the surface of the Earth and was roughly 27 kilometers (17 miles) from Jalalabad.
Given that most Afghans reside in mud-brick homes that are susceptible to collapsing, even comparatively shallow earthquakes have the potential to do considerable damage.
The more than four million Afghans who were compelled to return to their homeland from Iran and Pakistan in recent years, many of whom entered through the Torkham border crossing in Nangarhar province, included many of the residents of the earthquake-affected communities.
Since Sunday night, 600 people have been injured, according to Rahmatullah Khaksar, who is in charge of the emergency department at a hospital in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar.
Trauma patients made up the majority of the patients. He told AFP that they had cleared a ward for unnamed patients “so they will stay there until they find their families” after saying, “They were hit on the head, back, abdomen, and legs.”
Earthquakes regularly strike Afghanistan, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain region close to the meeting point of the India and Eurasia tectonic plates.
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Western Herat province in October 2023 destroyed or damaged over 63,000 dwellings and claimed over 1,500 lives.
In June 2022, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that killed over 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless occurred in the eastern province of Paktika.
