A powerful 6.0-magnitude Afghanistan earthquake struck just before midnight on Sunday, tearing through eastern mountain communities and killing at least 1,109 people, with 2,938 injured, according to Taliban officials. The epicenter was about 17 miles east of Jalalabad near the Pakistan border. Entire hamlets in Kunar and parts of Nangarhar crumpled in seconds. Local authorities estimate roughly 8,000 houses were destroyed, leaving thousands of families to sleep outdoors amid aftershocks and dust.
The first hours were chaotic. With power out and roads severed, neighbors dug by hand and with farm tools to pull people from collapsed mud-brick homes. By Tuesday, rescuers were still reaching isolated clusters of houses tucked into narrow valleys, where the death toll climbed as debris was cleared. Officials warned the numbers will likely rise once teams cut through landslides and blocked passes.
A race to reach the cut-off valleys
Reaching survivors is the hardest part. Landslides have buried segments of mountain roads and washed-out bridges have left towns marooned. In some stretches, only motorbikes or donkeys can move, and even those routes are unstable. Nighttime temperatures in high-altitude districts are dropping, pushing injured families out into the open without shelter or heat.
The Afghan Red Crescent has deployed medical teams and emergency staff, setting up triage points where clinics were damaged. Field workers described hospitals in regional hubs receiving a surge of crush injuries and fractures, with patients arriving in waves on pickup trucks. Heavy equipment is scarce, so clearing debris often comes down to shovels, crowbars, and human chains.
Aftershocks rattled nerves and slowed work. Many homes are cracked but still standing, and residents are too afraid to go back inside. Aid workers are advising families to avoid damaged structures and to sleep in open spaces until buildings can be assessed. Tents, tarpaulins, and blankets are in short supply.
This disaster hits a country already under strain from overlapping crises. Years of conflict, drought, and economic isolation have hollowed out services and left local authorities short of fuel, cash, and machinery. The United Nations refugee agency called the situation a “perfect storm,” as the need for rapid disaster response collides with limited resources and restricted access in remote districts.
International help is beginning to line up. China has pledged disaster relief support, and humanitarian agencies are preparing to send medical supplies, shelter kits, and water and sanitation equipment. The speed at which clearance teams can reopen roads will decide how quickly aid reaches those still out of contact. With every hour, the risk grows for people trapped under rubble or exposed to cold and dehydration.
Why this quake was so destructive
Afghanistan sits on the collision zone of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, where the Hindu Kush buckles under immense pressure. Quakes here can be especially dangerous when they are shallow and close to population centers. The terrain amplifies the damage: many villages cling to steep slopes that are prone to rockfall and landslides after strong shaking.
Construction adds to the risk. In the east, a large share of homes are built with sun-dried mud bricks and timber, often without reinforcement. These structures hold heat in winter and are relatively cheap to build, but they collapse easily under lateral shaking. When a quake hits at night, families are inside, increasing casualties.
Sunday’s disaster extends a deadly pattern. In June 2022, a 5.9 quake killed more than 1,000 people in the southeast. In October 2023, a 6.3 quake in the west triggered collapsing homes across several districts, with reported deaths ranging from 1,500 to 4,000, depending on the source. Repeated shocks drain savings, destroy tools and livestock, and leave families without backup shelter—a slow erosion of resilience that makes each new event worse.
Emergency needs are clear and immediate. Search-and-rescue is still underway, but the next priorities are survival and preventing secondary crises. Medical supplies and trauma care can mean the difference between recovery and permanent disability. Clean water and sanitation are essential to avoid outbreaks of diarrhea and other waterborne diseases in crowded temporary camps. Shelter is not just tarps and tents; it’s also warm clothing and cooking sets so families can manage on their own.
- Search and rescue: fuel, lifting gear, and protective equipment for teams working on unstable debris.
- Medical care: field surgery capacity, antibiotics, pain relief, IV fluids, clean dressings, and transportation for critical patients.
- Shelter: tents, tarpaulins, blankets, and materials to shore up partially damaged homes where safe.
- Water and sanitation: mobile water tanks, purification tablets, hygiene kits, and emergency latrines.
- Food and cash: ready-to-eat rations for the first week and cash assistance as markets reopen.
- Protection and psychosocial support: safe spaces for children, support for families who lost caregivers, and services for people with disabilities.
Logistics will make or break this response. Clearing key road segments unlocks everything else—from moving fuel to transporting the injured. Where roads are gone, helicopters and small airlifts can bridge the gap, but aviation is expensive and weather-dependent. Communication is another hurdle: damaged phone masts and power cuts slow coordination between villages and provincial hubs.
Authorities in Nangarhar and Kunar have asked residents to report missing relatives and to stay away from cracked buildings until engineers can assess them. In many quake-hit regions, local masons know which structures are a total loss and which can be safely braced. Simple fixes—like adding diagonal bracing or tying roofs to walls—can reduce the risk of collapse in aftershocks, but that requires tools and materials many families don’t have.
Aid groups also worry about time. The first 72 hours after a major quake are critical for finding survivors. As days pass, the response shifts to caring for the injured, preventing disease, and restoring basic services. If help arrives late, deaths can rise not only from initial injuries but from exposure, untreated infections, and the spread of illness in crowded shelters.
Here’s what to watch in the coming days:
- Access: whether crews can reopen the main routes into the worst-hit valleys.
- Casualty updates: numbers will likely rise as responders reach areas cut off by landslides.
- Aftershocks: any moderate tremors could trigger more collapses and rockfall.
- Aid scale-up: how fast medical, shelter, and water supplies move from warehouses to villages.
- Coordination: whether international support aligns with local requests and distribution plans.
For families in Kunar and Nangarhar, the path forward is steep. Rebuilding won’t be quick, and many will face months in temporary shelters. But the next few days will set the tone: clear the roads, treat the wounded, and get lifesaving supplies into the hands of those who lost everything overnight.
