Hundreds of people may have died in Sunday night’s devastating earthquake in Afghanistan, while countless have suffered injuries.
A powerful earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck Afghanistan’s remote northeastern province of Kunar at midnight, causing widespread devastation and sparking fears of a high death toll. Early reports from the Ministry of Public Health on Monday confirmed at least 30 deaths in a single village, while hundreds of others have been injured. Officials warned that the true scale of the disaster remains unknown as emergency teams struggle to reach remote mountain communities.
“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” said Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health. “We expect the numbers to rise as more information comes in from the field.”
Najibullah Hanif, the provincial head of information in Kunar, reported that hundreds of injured victims have been transported to hospitals, while many more remain trapped or unaccounted for in the rubble of collapsed homes. Rescuers, including emergency personnel and local volunteers, are working in several quake-hit districts, racing against time to find survivors in the debris.
The earthquake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers, amplifying its destructive power in a region filled with mud and stone homes ill-equipped to withstand seismic shocks. The worst-hit areas lie along the rugged Afghanistan–Pakistan border, near Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Kunar, like many parts of Afghanistan, is vulnerable to natural disasters due to its mountainous terrain, weak infrastructure, and lack of emergency preparedness. The country lies within a major seismic zone, especially the Hindu Kush region where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. Last year, western Afghanistan experienced a similar catastrophe when a series of powerful quakes killed over 1,000 people, highlighting the region’s chronic exposure to earthquake hazards.
With communications limited and roads damaged or blocked, relief efforts are expected to be slow and challenging. Afghan authorities have called on international humanitarian organizations for urgent assistance to aid search, rescue, and recovery efforts.
