Afghanistan was plunged into fresh tragedy late Sunday night when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Jalalabad, shaking homes from Kabul to Islamabad and leaving more than 800 people dead. The quake, which struck at a shallow depth of just eight kilometres, triggered at least five aftershocks through the night, the strongest registering 5.2.
The epicentre lay in the mountainous Kunar province, where Taliban officials reported around 800 deaths and 2,500 injuries. Another 12 people were killed and more than 250 injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province. Villages built largely of mud and brick crumbled under the force of the tremors, with three entire settlements razed in Kunar alone. Rescue teams warned that several communities remain cut off by blocked roads, leaving fears the toll could rise further.
Scenes of desperation unfolded as helicopters ferried the wounded to safety, while residents helped medics carry survivors to waiting ambulances. “Children and women were screaming. We had never experienced anything like this in our lives,” said Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad, a resident of Nurgal district, describing the chaos as families rushed into the night. Many of those affected, he noted, were among the millions of Afghans recently forced back from Iran and Pakistan, trying to rebuild fragile lives in villages now reduced to rubble.
The Taliban government, alongside UN agencies, launched an urgent relief operation, with the defence ministry reporting dozens of air sorties to deliver aid. Yet the devastation has struck a country already battling multiple crises: dwindling foreign aid, mass deportations of migrants, and the lingering scars of decades of conflict.
International condolences poured in quickly. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he stood in “full solidarity” with Afghans. The European Union pledged aid through humanitarian partners on the ground. From Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari, and other leaders expressed grief, promising support for their “Afghan brothers and sisters” in this moment of loss.
Afghanistan has long been vulnerable to deadly tremors, lying on the fault line between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Recent years have brought repeated tragedies: more than 1,500 killed in Herat in 2023, and another 1,000 in Paktika in 2022. For a nation already struggling to survive under immense strain, this latest disaster adds yet another layer of heartbreak and uncertainty.