Afghanistan Quake Toll Surpasses 2,200

KABUL: The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan over the weekend rose sharply on Thursday to more than 2,200, making it the deadliest to hit the country in decades, according to a Taliban government toll.

Officials said most of the casualties occurred in Kunar province, where 2,205 people were confirmed dead and 3,640 injured. Another 12 fatalities were reported in the neighbouring provinces of Nangarhar and Laghman, where hundreds more were wounded. The toll was expected to rise further as rescuers continued to pull bodies from collapsed homes.

“Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from destroyed houses during search and rescue operations,” deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat wrote on X, adding that relief efforts were still under way.

Access to the hardest-hit areas of mountainous Kunar province has been hampered by landslides triggered by aftershocks, which blocked narrow roads carved into cliff sides. Although international aid has begun arriving, many villages remain stranded without food or shelter. In Nurgal district, families were forced to huddle under tarpaulin sheets salvaged from the debris, while reports described scuffles breaking out when food aid finally reached displaced survivors.

The World Health Organisation warned that Afghanistan’s fragile health system was under immense strain, citing shortages of trauma supplies, medicines and staff. “Every hour counts. Hospitals are struggling, families are grieving and survivors have lost everything,” said Jamshed Tanoli, who leads WHO’s emergency team in Afghanistan. The agency has appealed for $4 million to expand mobile health services and distribute supplies.

The disaster comes as Afghanistan grapples with deepening economic and humanitarian crises. Foreign aid cuts, severe drought and endemic poverty have already weakened the country’s response capacity, while millions of Afghans have been forced back from Pakistan and Iran since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover.

UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said the quake had affected more than half a million people in eastern Afghanistan, calling it “a crisis within a crisis”. Even as the country reeled from the disaster, Pakistani authorities reported more than 6,300 Afghans crossed into quake-hit Nangarhar province via the Torkham border point on Tuesday as part of Islamabad’s ongoing repatriation campaign.