Over 800 Dead After Devastating Earthquake Rocks Afghanistan
By: Oluwaseun Lawal
The earth shook hard in eastern Afghanistan at exactly just some minute before midnight. It was a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit, which was followed by multiple aftershocks. Homes collapsed. Families were trapped. More than 800 people lost their lives, Taliban officials say.
The quake rattled buildings from Kabul all the way to Islamabad in Pakistan. Over 1.2 million people felt the tremors, some strong enough to cause panic.
The worst hit? Kunar province. About 800 dead and 2,500 critically injured. A town nearby named Nangarhar and Laghman provinces was also said to have suffered casualties and damage. Also some villages in remote areas were affected, roads blocked, making rescue efforts tough.
In Nurgal district’s Wadir village, people worked through the night, pulling survivors from rubble. But the terrain is rough, and communication is limited. “There is a lot of fear and tension,” said Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad, a local official. “Children and women were screaming. We had never experienced anything like this.”
Many victims were returnees — Afghans who had come back from Iran and Pakistan, hoping to rebuild their lives. Now, their dreams lie in ruins.
The Taliban and the UN scrambled to help. At least 40 flights carried aid and rescue teams. But the scale of destruction is overwhelming.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his condolences, standing in solidarity with the Afghan people. The Vatican’s Pope Leo XIV also shared his sorrow over the loss of life.
Afghanistan sits on a volatile fault line, with frequent earthquakes. The Hindu Kush mountains are no stranger to seismic activity. Past quakes have killed thousands and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.
The country is already battered by decades of war and poverty. Foreign aid has dried up since the Taliban returned to power, leaving millions struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day.
This earthquake is yet another cruel blow to a nation already on the edge. Rescue efforts continue, but the road to recovery will be long and hard.
