Multiple casualties feared after 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocks eastern Afghanistan
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Floods leave women struggling in Pakistan’s relief camps
Monsoon rains over the past week swelled three major rivers that cut through Punjab province, Pakistan’s agricultural heartland. Floods triggered by heavier-than-usual monsoon rains have killed more than 850 people nationwide since June. The latest downpour has killed at least 32 people, the provincial minister said on Sunday. Women displaced by the floods struggle to get sanitary pads and clean clothes when theirs are stained by blood from their periods. The pregnant women are also vulnerable to infectious diseases, according to doctors in a medical camp set up by a local NGO. The number of affected people rose on Sunday to more than two million, says the provincial senior minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, who said 750,000 people have been evacuated, of whom 115,000 were rescued by boat.. 75 babies die every day in Pakistan, along with 27 in perinatal stages from preventable complications, the World Health Organization says. The WHO says climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, and deadly, across the region.
Waiting for the water that swallowed their homes to recede, women in Chung, a settlement on Lahore’s outskirts, have limited access to sanitary pads and essential medicines, including pregnancy-related care.
Shumaila Riaz, 19-years-old and seven months pregnant with her first child, spent the past four days in the relief camp, enduring pregnancy cramps.
Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
“I wanted to think about the child I am going to have, but now, I am not even certain about my own future,” she told AFP.
Clad in dirty clothes they have worn for days and with unbrushed hair, women huddle in the overcrowded school hosting more than 2,000 people, surrounded by mud and stagnant rainwater.
“My body aches a lot and I can’t get the medicines I want here,” said 19-year-old Fatima, mother to a one-year-old daughter and four months pregnant.
“I used to eat as I please, sleep as I please, walk as I please — that is all gone now. I can’t do that here,” added Fatima, who asked AFP not to use her real name.
Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
Monsoon rains over the past week swelled three major rivers that cut through Punjab province, Pakistan’s agricultural heartland and home to nearly half of its 255 million people.
The number of affected people rose on Sunday to more than two million, according to provincial senior minister Marriyum Aurangzeb.
Around 750,000 people have been evacuated, of whom 115,000 were rescued by boat — making it the largest rescue operation in Punjab’s history, according to the provincial government.
The flooded rivers have affected mostly rural areas near their banks but heavy rain also flooded urban areas, including several parts of Lahore — the country’s second-largest city.
Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
While South Asia’s seasonal monsoon brings rainfall that farmers depend on, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, and deadly, across the region.
Landslides and floods triggered by heavier-than-usual monsoon rains have killed more than 850 people nationwide since June.
The latest downpour has killed at least 32 people, the provincial minister said on Sunday.
– Infections and trauma –
Sleeping in tents held together with thin wooden sticks, women displaced by the floods struggle to get sanitary pads and clean clothes when theirs are stained by blood from their periods.
Menstruation remains a taboo topic in Pakistan, with many women discouraged from speaking about it.
Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
“We are struggling to get pads for when we get our period. And even if we do, there are no proper bathrooms to use,” said Aleema Bibi, 35, as her baby slept on a sheet soiled with mud.
“We go to the homes nearby to use the bathroom,” she added.
Jameela, who uses only one name, said she seeks privacy in a makeshift bathroom next to a cowshed.
“We wait for men in these homes to leave, so that we can go use the bathrooms and change our pads,” she said.
Outside the medical truck beside the relief camp, a concerned woman asked where to take her eight-month-pregnant daughter-in-law who had gone into labour, AFP journalists saw.
Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
The pregnant women are also vulnerable to infectious diseases, according to doctors in the medical camp set up by a local NGO.
“I receive around 200 to 300 patients every day with different infections and water-borne diseases,” said Fahad Abbas, 27, a doctor at the medical camp.
“There are a lot of patients here who are going through psychological trauma, especially women and children, after losing their homes.”
Even without the crisis of a flood, 675 babies under one month old die every day in Pakistan, along with 27 women in perinatal stages from preventable complications, according to the World Health Organization.
Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
Another woman, who wanted to stay anonymous, said the medicine she once used to manage her period cramps was now too difficult to buy.
“We escaped death, but this misery is no less than death either,” Jameela said.
stm/ecl/lb/dhw
Nine people including two children are killed in Afghanistan earthquake: Homes destroyed as 6.0-magnitude quake rocks villages
Two children died when the roof of their home caved in during the natural disaster. At least 15 other people were injured, officials said in a statement. The epicentre of the quake was located 27 kilometres east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the US Geological Survey. There was a second quake some 20 minutes later in the same province with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 10 kilometers.
Tremors began at 7.17pm UK time, close to the border with Pakistan – leaving scenes of devastation in their wake.
The quake reportedly shook buildings from Kabul to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad around 370 kilometres away for several seconds.
Two children died when the roof of their home caved in during the natural disaster, according to initial reports from provincial authorities.
At least 15 other people were injured, officials said in a statement.
The epicentre of the quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of eight kilometres, was located 27 kilometres east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
There was a second quake some 20 minutes later in the same province, with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 10 kilometers.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Victims of the 6.0-magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan are treated for their wounds on Sunday evening
Many homes were reduced to rubble by the force of the earthquake
Afghans stand amid the remains of houses as the search for survivors continues
Nangarhar province was also hit by flooding overnight Friday to Saturday, which left five people dead and destroyed crops and property, authorities said.
Naqibullah Rahimi, a spokesman for the Nangarhar Public Health Department, said 15 people were injured and taken to the local hospital for treatment.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2023, followed by strong aftershocks. The Taliban government estimated that at least 4,000 people perished.
The U.N. gave a far lower death toll of about 1,500 – the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.
Multiple casualties feared after 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocks eastern Afghanistan
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Afghanistan’s eastern region near the Pakistan border on Sunday. USGS models estimate the shaking could result in hundreds of fatalities. At least nine people were killed and 25 others were injured in Nangarhar Province, Reuters reported. An orange alert was issued by the USGS PAGER system, which predicts economic and human loss after earthquakes. The quake occurred 27km (16.77 miles) north-east of Jalalabad and at a depth of 8km (4.97 miles)
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Afghanistan’s eastern region near the Pakistan border on Sunday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
USGS reported that the quake occurred 27km (16.77 miles) north-east of Jalalabad, in Nangarhar Province, and at a depth of 8km (4.97 miles). It struck at 11:47 p.m. local time. USGS models estimate the shaking could result in hundreds of fatalities.
Nearly half a million people likely felt strong to very strong shaking, which can result in considerable damage to poorly built structures, according to the USGS.
At least nine people were killed and 25 others were injured in Nangarhar, Reuters reported, citing Ajmal Darwaish, spokesman for the province’s health department.
“Unfortunately, tonight’s earthquake has had human casualties and financial damages in some of our eastern provinces,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on X.
“Right now, local officials and residents are making all the efforts to rescue affected ones. Support teams from the capital and nearby provinces are also on their way. All available resources will be used for the rescue and relief of the people,” he added.
Around 20 minutes after the quake struck, a 4.5-magnitude aftershock hit the same region, according to USGS, later followed by a 5.2-magnitude aftershock — both at a depth of 10km (6.21 miles).
An orange alert was issued by the USGS PAGER system, which predicts economic and human loss after earthquakes.
“Significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response,” it said.
Ahmad Zameer, 41, a resident in Kabul, told CNN the earthquake was strong and jolted his neighborhood more than 100 miles from the epicenter. He added that everyone from the nearby apartment buildings rushed to the street in fear of being trapped inside.
In October 2023, more than 2,000 people died after a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck western Afghanistan – one of the deadliest quakes to hit the country in recent years.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Days after devastating earthquake, many Afghans still waiting for aid
A 6.0-magnitude quake that devastated a remote southeast region of Afghanistan on Wednesday killed at least 1,150 people. The United Nations has put the death toll at 770 people but warned it could rise further. The cash-strapped Taliban have called for foreign assistance and appealed to Washington to unfreeze billions of dollars in Afghanistan’s currency reserves. Nearly 800 families are living out in the open, according to the UN’s humanitarian co-ordination organization, UNCHA. The earthquake was the latest calamity to convulse the country, which has been reeling from a dire economic crisis since the Taliban took control of the country in August. in the country’s 39 million people were facing life-threatening levels of food insecurity because of poverty before the quake, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief said on Saturday. But the relief effort remains patchy and limited due to funding and access constraints, he said. The U.S. and its NATO allies were withdrawing their main aid — a mainstay of Afghanistan’s economy — for decades.
He clawed through the rubble in the pre-dawn darkness, choking on dust as he searched for his father and two sisters. He doesn’t know how many hours of digging passed before he caught a glimpse of their bodies under the ruins. They were dead.
Now, days after a 6.0-magnitude quake that devastated a remote southeast region of Afghanistan on Wednesday and killed at least 1,150 people by authorities’ estimates, Gul sees destruction everywhere and help in short supply. His niece and nephew were also killed in the quake, crushed by the walls of their house.
The United Nations has put the death toll at 770 people but warned it could rise further. Either toll would make the quake Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades.
“I don’t know what will happen to us or how we should restart our lives,” Gul told The Associated Press on Sunday, his hands bruised and his shoulder injured. “We don’t have any money to rebuild.”
Taliban call for international aid
It’s a fear shared among thousands in the impoverished villages where the fury of the quake has fallen most heavily — in Paktika and Khost provinces, along the jagged mountains that straddle the country’s border with Pakistan.
Those who were barely scraping by have lost everything. Many have yet to be visited by aid groups and authorities, which are struggling to reach the afflicted area on rutted roads — some made impassable by landslides and damage.
Aware of its constraints, the cash-strapped Taliban have called for foreign assistance and on Saturday appealed to Washington to unfreeze billions of dollars in Afghanistan’s currency reserves. The United Nations and an array of international aid groups and countries have mobilized to send help.
Afghan children scrape rice from pots at a camp in Gayan district on Sunday following the quake, the country’s deadliest in two decades. Even before the earthquake, about half of the country’s 39 million people were facing life-threatening levels of food insecurity because of poverty. (Ebrahim Nooroozi/The Associated Press)
China pledged nearly $7.5 million US in emergency humanitarian aid on Saturday, joining nations including Iran, Pakistan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in dispatching a planeload of tents, towels, beds and other badly needed supplies to the quake-hit area.
UN Deputy Special Representative Ramiz Alakbarov toured the hard-hit Paktika province on Saturday to assess the damage and distribute food, medicine and tents. UN helicopters and trucks laden with bread, flour, rice and blankets have trickled into the stricken areas.
“Yesterday’s visit reaffirmed to me both the extreme suffering of people in Afghanistan and their tremendous resolve in the face of great adversity,” Alakbarov said, appealing for the repair of damaged water pipes, roads and communication lines in the area.
Without support, he added, Afghans “will continue to endure unnecessary and unimaginable hardship.”
WATCH | Rescuers search for quake survivors: Rescuers in Afghanistan search for survivors of deadly quake People dug by hand through villages in eastern Afghanistan that were reduced to rubble by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people. An estimated 1,500 others were reported injured, the state-run news agency said.
Hundreds of families living out in the open
But the relief effort remains patchy and limited due to funding and access constraints. The Taliban, which seized power last August from a government sustained for 20 years by a U.S.-led military coalition, appears overwhelmed by the logistical complexities of issues such as debris removal in what is shaping up to be a major test of its capacity to govern.
Villagers have dug out their dead loved ones with their bare hands, buried them in mass graves and slept in the woods despite the rain. Nearly 800 families are living out in the open, according to the UN’s humanitarian co-ordination organization, OCHA.
Gul received a tent and blankets from a local charity in the Gayan district, but he and his surviving relatives have had to fend for themselves. Terrified as the earth still rumbles from aftershocks like one on Friday that claimed five more lives, he said his children in Gayan refuse to go indoors.
Afghans walk in front of destroyed homes in Gayan district on Sunday. Relief efforts have been patchy and limited due to funding and access constraints. (Ebrahim Nooroozi/The Associated Press)
The earthquake was the latest calamity to convulse Afghanistan, which has been reeling from a dire economic crisis since the Taliban took control of the country as the United States and its NATO allies were withdrawing their forces. Foreign aid — a mainstay of Afghanistan’s economy for decades — stopped practically overnight.
World governments piled on sanctions, halted bank transfers and paralyzed trade, refusing to recognize the Taliban government. The Biden administration cut off the Taliban’s access to $7 billion US in foreign currency reserves held in the U.S.
As he toured the disaster site, acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi urged the White House to release the funds “at a time when Afghanistan is in the grips of earthquakes and floods” and to lift banking restrictions so charities can more easily provide aid.
‘We have nothing left’
Western donors have withheld longer-term assistance as they demand the Taliban allow a more inclusive rule and respect human rights. The former insurgents have resisted the pressure, imposing restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls that recall their first time in power in the late 1990s.
Now, about half of the country’s 39 million people are facing life-threatening levels of food insecurity because of poverty. Most civil servants, including doctors, nurses and teachers, have not been paid for months.
Taliban fighters stand guard beside aid supplies for earthquake victims in Gayan district on Saturday. (Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images)
UN agencies and other remaining organizations have scrambled to keep Afghanistan from the brink of starvation with a humanitarian program that has fed millions and kept the medical system afloat. But with international donors lagging, UN agencies face a $3-billion US funding shortfall this year.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization said it was stepping up surveillance of infectious diseases in Afghanistan’s earthquake-hit areas. Afghanistan is one of the two remaining polio-endemic countries in the world.
Reeling from war and impoverished long before the Taliban takeover, the far-flung areas hit by last Wednesday’s earthquake are particularly ill-equipped to cope.
Some local businessmen have swung into action. The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment said on Sunday it had raised more than $1.5 million US for Pakitka and Khost provinces.
Still, for those whose homes have been obliterated, the help may not be enough.
“We have nothing left,” Gul said.
Powerful earthquakes strike western Afghanistan, death toll roses to more than 2,000
The 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck on Saturday 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Herat city in the western Herat province – the third largest in Afghanistan. The initial quake was also felt in neighboring provinces of Badghis and Farah and was followed by multiple aftershocks. Close to 500 houses were reportedly destroyed and 135 buildings damaged, said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Afghanistan has suffered significant damage from a series of recent earthquakes amid an ongoing dire economic and hunger crises, killing and displacing tens of thousands combined. The World Bank warned two thirds of Afghan families currently face “significant challenged in maintaining their livelihoods” that makes is far harder for Afghans to recover from earthquakes.
More than 2,000 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck western Afghanistan, the Taliban said Sunday, as the nation reels from another quake at a time of deep economic crisis.
The 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck on Saturday 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Herat city in the western Herat province – the third largest in Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mojahid put the number killed at 2,053 people, with more 1,240 people hurt and 1,320 houses completely or partially destroyed. There are fears the toll could rise further.
Rescue teams have arrived in the Herat province, and foods, water, medicines and clothes have also been sent to the site, Mojahid added.
The initial quake was also felt in neighboring provinces of Badghis and Farah and was followed by multiple aftershocks.
An earlier assessments from the UN had indicated a lower toll of around 100 dead and 500 injured. Close to 500 houses were reportedly destroyed and 135 buildings damaged, said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“In total, 4,200 people (600 families) are assessed to have been affected to date,” OCHA said.
Images showed massive heaps of debris and rubble after buildings collapsed. Crowds of survivors had gathered in the streets for safety.
“Mahal Wadakah is understood to be the worst affected village,” the UN said, reporting at least 20 deaths. Other badly affected areas include Dasht Hows, Bahadorzai, Zoryan and Koshkak, it added.
“Additionally, an estimated 300 families (around 2,100 people) are reported to have been displaced to Herat City where they are living in abandoned buildings.”
Residents clear debris from a damaged house. Mohsen Karimi/AFP/Getty Images
Afghanistan has suffered significant damage from a series of recent earthquakes amid an ongoing dire economic and hunger crises, killing and displacing tens of thousands combined.
The country has long been one of Asia’s poorest and has been ravaged by conflict for decades. But its ability to respond to natural disasters has been further hampered since the Taliban seized power in 2021 following the chaotic US withdrawal, an event that saw many international aid groups pull out.
It also led to Washington and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cutting off international funding. The situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid.
Last week the World Bank warned two thirds of Afghan families currently face “significant challenged in maintaining their livelihoods”.
That makes is far harder for Afghans to recover from earthquakes, which are a regular phenomenon in a country that often experiences seismic activity.
A deadly quake in March struck northeastern Afghanistan, sending residents fleeing from their homes as it brought down entire buildings and triggered devastating landslides.
Tremors were also felt in several major Pakistani cities and as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi.
A 5.9 magnitude earthquake last June in the eastern Paktika and Khost provinces bordering Pakistan, killed more than a thousand people and sent aid groups scrambling to reach victims and survivors in areas blighted by poor infrastructure.
The quake had coincided with heavy monsoon rains and winds which greatly hampered search efforts and helicopter travel.
And a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on January 17, 2022 struck Badghis, another western province near Herat bordering Turkmenistan, killed more than 20 people and reduced hundreds of brick homes to rubble.