Afghanistan earthquake kills more than 800
Agence France-Presse
September 1, 2025
An injured Afghan boy (bottom) receives treatment at a hospital after an earthquake in Afghanistan's Jalalabad on September 1, 2025. Nine people died when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake and powerful aftershock rattled eastern Afghanistan, the provincial Nangarhar government said on 1 September 2025. (Photo credit: Aimal ZAHIR / AFP)
A massive rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan Monday, after a strong earthquake and multiple aftershocks flattened homes in a remote, mountainous region, killing more than 800 people, the Taliban authorities said.
The earthquake struck just before midnight, shaking buildings from Kabul to neighbouring Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
More than 1.2 million people likely felt strong or very strong shaking, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Near the epicentre in the east of Afghanistan, around 800 people were killed and 2,500 injured in remote Kunar province alone, chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
Another 12 people were killed and 255 injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province, he added.
"Numerous houses were destroyed," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP.
The majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes that are vulnerable to collapse.
Some of the most severely impacted villages in remote Kunar provinces "remain inaccessible due to road blockages", the UN migration agency warned in a statement to AFP.
The Taliban authorities and the United Nations mobilised rescue efforts to hard-hit areas. The defence ministry said 40 flight sorties had so far been carried out.
A member of the agricultural department in Kunar's Nurgal district said people had rushed to clear blocked roads to isolated villages, but that badly affected areas were remote and had limited telecoms networks.
"There is a lot of fear and tension... Children and women were screaming. We had never experienced anything like this in our lives," Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told AFP.
He said that many living in quake-hit villages were among the more than four million Afghans who have returned to the country from Iran and Pakistan in recent years.
"They wanted to build their homes here."
The quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of eight kilometres, was 27 kilometres from the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the USGS.
Nangarhar and Kunar provinces border Pakistan, with the Torkham crossing the site of many waves of Afghan returnees deported or forced to leave, often with no work and nowhere to go.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his condolences to those shared by the Taliban government and several nations.
"I stand in full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier today," he said.
- Frequent quakes -
After the initial quake, a series of at least five aftershocks followed throughout the night, with the strongest being one of magnitude 5.2 just after 4:00 am (2330 GMT Sunday).
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Nangarhar province was also hit by flooding overnight Friday to Saturday, which killed five people and destroyed crops and property, provincial authorities said.
In October 2023, western Herat province was devastated by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 1,500 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.
In June 2022, a 5.9-magnitude quake struck the impoverished eastern border province of Paktika, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
Ravaged by four decades of war, Afghanistan is already contending with a series of humanitarian crises.
Since the return of the Taliban, foreign aid to Afghanistan has been slashed, undermining the already impoverished nation's ability to respond to disasters.
Agence France-Presse
September 1, 2025
An injured Afghan boy (bottom) receives treatment at a hospital after an earthquake in Afghanistan's Jalalabad on September 1, 2025. Nine people died when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake and powerful aftershock rattled eastern Afghanistan, the provincial Nangarhar government said on 1 September 2025. (Photo credit: Aimal ZAHIR / AFP)
A massive rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan Monday, after a strong earthquake and multiple aftershocks flattened homes in a remote, mountainous region, killing more than 800 people, the Taliban authorities said.
The earthquake struck just before midnight, shaking buildings from Kabul to neighbouring Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
More than 1.2 million people likely felt strong or very strong shaking, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Near the epicentre in the east of Afghanistan, around 800 people were killed and 2,500 injured in remote Kunar province alone, chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
Another 12 people were killed and 255 injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province, he added.
"Numerous houses were destroyed," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP.
The majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes that are vulnerable to collapse.
Some of the most severely impacted villages in remote Kunar provinces "remain inaccessible due to road blockages", the UN migration agency warned in a statement to AFP.
The Taliban authorities and the United Nations mobilised rescue efforts to hard-hit areas. The defence ministry said 40 flight sorties had so far been carried out.
A member of the agricultural department in Kunar's Nurgal district said people had rushed to clear blocked roads to isolated villages, but that badly affected areas were remote and had limited telecoms networks.
"There is a lot of fear and tension... Children and women were screaming. We had never experienced anything like this in our lives," Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told AFP.
He said that many living in quake-hit villages were among the more than four million Afghans who have returned to the country from Iran and Pakistan in recent years.
"They wanted to build their homes here."
The quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of eight kilometres, was 27 kilometres from the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, according to the USGS.
Nangarhar and Kunar provinces border Pakistan, with the Torkham crossing the site of many waves of Afghan returnees deported or forced to leave, often with no work and nowhere to go.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his condolences to those shared by the Taliban government and several nations.
"I stand in full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier today," he said.
- Frequent quakes -
After the initial quake, a series of at least five aftershocks followed throughout the night, with the strongest being one of magnitude 5.2 just after 4:00 am (2330 GMT Sunday).
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Nangarhar province was also hit by flooding overnight Friday to Saturday, which killed five people and destroyed crops and property, provincial authorities said.
In October 2023, western Herat province was devastated by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 1,500 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.
In June 2022, a 5.9-magnitude quake struck the impoverished eastern border province of Paktika, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
Ravaged by four decades of war, Afghanistan is already contending with a series of humanitarian crises.
Since the return of the Taliban, foreign aid to Afghanistan has been slashed, undermining the already impoverished nation's ability to respond to disasters.
Many families were asleep when the quake struck in the dead of the night.
By AFP
September 1, 2025
Taliban security personnel carry an Afghan earthquake victim evacuated by a military helicopter - Copyright AFP Wakil KOHSAR
Qubad Wali
No household was spared death or injury in the village of Wadir when a powerful earthquake shook eastern Afghanistan, reducing homes to piles of rubble.
Aftershocks from the 6.0-magnitude earthquake continued to rumble across the scenes of destruction, where remains of dead livestock jutted out from a tangle of broken beams and muddy, flattened homes.
“In every home at least one person was killed or injured,” 55-year-old resident Gul Mohammad Rasooli told AFP, himself injured.
The smell of death mingled with the sound of wailing women and scraping shovels as rescuers and residents desperately tried to find anyone still alive.
In front of what was a single-storey mud-brick home, rescuers were undeterred by a string of aftershocks that sent a din echoing between the mountains as they tried to find two children.
Their mother had been injured, a rescue worker told AFP, “and when we pulled her out she was calling out for her children”, who were still inside.
Many families were asleep when the quake struck in the dead of the night.
Every 15 minutes, the roar of a helicopter filled the air, with Taliban security personnel spilling out to unload bread and water and then refilling the aircraft with stretchers bearing those hurt worst.
Men, women and children were ferried to hospitals in the nearest city Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.
Many roads through the mountainous areas that were already difficult to navigate were rendered impassable by landslides.
– ‘May not survive’ –
The grim toll of the earthquake started to become clear from the first hours after the earthquake early on Monday.
The country — one of the poorest in the world and regularly hit by natural disasters that are expected to multiply under the effects of climate change — has already counted more than 800 dead.
Thousands of injured are already crammed into hospitals, where doctors and nurses work frantically amid the constant flow of stretchers.
In Wadir, where around a 1,000 homes are tucked in the mountains of Kunar province — half of them belong to Afghans recently expelled from neighbouring Pakistan and trying to rebuild their lives — no one yet dares to give a final death toll.
“It won’t be wrong to tell you that nine out of 10 people are either dead or hurt,” said 38-year-old doctor Fazel Rabih, who was delivering first aid.
Eastern Afghanistan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes, having seen 12 with a magnitude higher than seven since 1900.
But 20-year-old Wadir resident Mohammad Jawad said he had never felt one so strong.
“When the earthquake happened it was so strong I ran out of the house and it immediately collapsed behind me,” he told AFP, saying among the 10 members of his family, one person had been killed and most of the others had been injured.
Even as the earth continues to shake under their feet, the villagers fear the worst is not over, as dark rain clouds gathered in the mountains overhead.
There is no shelter for those left behind in the scarred remnants of the village, said the village mullah Irfan Ulhaq.
“If anyone is alive under the rubble, they may not survive.”
By AFP
September 1, 2025
Taliban security personnel carry an Afghan earthquake victim evacuated by a military helicopter - Copyright AFP Wakil KOHSAR
Qubad Wali
No household was spared death or injury in the village of Wadir when a powerful earthquake shook eastern Afghanistan, reducing homes to piles of rubble.
Aftershocks from the 6.0-magnitude earthquake continued to rumble across the scenes of destruction, where remains of dead livestock jutted out from a tangle of broken beams and muddy, flattened homes.
“In every home at least one person was killed or injured,” 55-year-old resident Gul Mohammad Rasooli told AFP, himself injured.
The smell of death mingled with the sound of wailing women and scraping shovels as rescuers and residents desperately tried to find anyone still alive.
In front of what was a single-storey mud-brick home, rescuers were undeterred by a string of aftershocks that sent a din echoing between the mountains as they tried to find two children.
Their mother had been injured, a rescue worker told AFP, “and when we pulled her out she was calling out for her children”, who were still inside.
Many families were asleep when the quake struck in the dead of the night.
Every 15 minutes, the roar of a helicopter filled the air, with Taliban security personnel spilling out to unload bread and water and then refilling the aircraft with stretchers bearing those hurt worst.
Men, women and children were ferried to hospitals in the nearest city Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.
Many roads through the mountainous areas that were already difficult to navigate were rendered impassable by landslides.
– ‘May not survive’ –
The grim toll of the earthquake started to become clear from the first hours after the earthquake early on Monday.
The country — one of the poorest in the world and regularly hit by natural disasters that are expected to multiply under the effects of climate change — has already counted more than 800 dead.
Thousands of injured are already crammed into hospitals, where doctors and nurses work frantically amid the constant flow of stretchers.
In Wadir, where around a 1,000 homes are tucked in the mountains of Kunar province — half of them belong to Afghans recently expelled from neighbouring Pakistan and trying to rebuild their lives — no one yet dares to give a final death toll.
“It won’t be wrong to tell you that nine out of 10 people are either dead or hurt,” said 38-year-old doctor Fazel Rabih, who was delivering first aid.
Eastern Afghanistan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes, having seen 12 with a magnitude higher than seven since 1900.
But 20-year-old Wadir resident Mohammad Jawad said he had never felt one so strong.
“When the earthquake happened it was so strong I ran out of the house and it immediately collapsed behind me,” he told AFP, saying among the 10 members of his family, one person had been killed and most of the others had been injured.
Even as the earth continues to shake under their feet, the villagers fear the worst is not over, as dark rain clouds gathered in the mountains overhead.
There is no shelter for those left behind in the scarred remnants of the village, said the village mullah Irfan Ulhaq.
“If anyone is alive under the rubble, they may not survive.”
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