A shallow magnitude 6 earthquake struck eastern Kunar province just before midnight Sunday, killing about 900 people, injuring roughly 3,000, and flattening villages and buildings. Mountainous terrain and narrow roads have blocked vehicle access, leaving volunteers unable to reach isolated areas along the Pakistani border where mud-brick homes were destroyed. Rescue teams are working to extend operations into remote mountain areas while counting and recovering bodies under rubble. Health facilities were already fragile before the quake, overwhelming local capacity and creating dependence on external actors to deliver aid to more than 12,000 affected people.
The provincial head of disaster management, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said early on Tuesday that efforts would be extended to more of the region's mountainous areas. We cannot accurately predict how many bodies might still be trapped under the rubble, said Ehsan. Our effort is to complete these operations as soon as possible and to begin distributing aid to the affected families, he noted, adding that some of those who were injured have been transferred to hospitals in the capital, Kabul, and to the adjacent Nangarhar province.
Just before midnight on Sunday, a shallow magnitude 6 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan one of the deadliest the country has experienced. The mountainous terrain is making rescue work difficult, with volunteers unable to reach isolated areas along the Pakistani border, where mostly mud-brick homes have been destroyed. According to Ehsan, gaining vehicle access on the narrow mountainous roads has been the main obstacle for relief work.
In a situational update, the World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated that the destruction of roads and the remote locations of many villages severely impede the delivery of aid. The pre-earthquake fragility of the health system means local capacity is overwhelmed, creating total dependence on external actors, said the WHO, adding that more than 12,000 people had been affected.
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