Published On 3 Sep 2025
Hope is fading of finding survivors in the rubble of homes devastated by a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan over the weekend that killed more than 1,400 people, as emergency services struggle to reach remote villages.
In Kunar’s Nurgal district, victims remained trapped under destroyed structures and were difficult to rescue, local official Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. “There are some villages which have still not received aid,” he said.
A magnitude 6 earthquake hit the mountainous region bordering Pakistan on Sunday, leaving residents huddled in the open air for fear of powerful aftershocks and desperately trying to pull people from under flattened buildings.
The earthquake has killed at least 1,411 people and injured 3,124 others, the governing Taliban authorities said, making it one of the deadliest in decades to hit the impoverished country.
The vast majority of the casualties were in Kunar province, with a dozen dead and hundreds hurt in nearby Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.
Survivor Gul Bibi, 80, who lives in the mountain village of Mazar Dara, one of the places worst hit in Kunar, told the Reuters news agency: “I lost everything,” adding that her family was buried under the mud and debris of their home.
“Just this grandson survived,” Bibi said, gesturing to the toddler in her arms.
Landslides caused by the earthquake have stymied access to already isolated villages.
The humanitarian group Save the Children said one of its aid teams “had to walk for 20km [12 miles] to reach villages cut off by rock falls, carrying medical equipment on their backs with the help of community members”.
The World Health Organization warned the number of casualties from the earthquake was likely to rise, “as many remain trapped in destroyed buildings”.
In two days, the Taliban government’s Ministry of Defence said it organised 155 helicopter flights to evacuate some 2,000 injured and their relatives to regional hospitals.
A small mobile clinic was deployed to Mazar Dara to provide emergency care to the injured, but no tents were set up to shelter survivors, AFP reported.
On Tuesday, a Defence Ministry commission said it had instructed “the relevant institutions to take measures in all areas to normalise the lives of the earthquake victims”, without providing further details.
Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said a camp had been set up in Khas Kunar district to coordinate emergency aid, while two other centres were opened near the epicentre “to oversee the transfer of the injured, the burial of the dead, and the rescue of survivors”.
According to the United Nations, hundreds of thousands of people could be affected by the disaster.
The UN humanitarian office released $5m from its emergency fund to help kick-start the UN response, and that will be matched by $5m from the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.
Multiple countries have also pledged assistance, though NGOs and the UN have voiced alarm that funding shortfalls after massive aid cuts threaten the response.
The United Kingdom has pledged 1 million pounds ($1.3m) to be split between humanitarian agencies rather than going to the Taliban government, which it does not recognise.
The European Union is sending 130 tonnes of emergency supplies and providing 1 million euros ($1.16m). Other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and India, have pledged disaster relief support.
The Chinese embassy in Kabul said on Wednesday it had extended earthquake relief aid to Afghanistan.
After decades of war, Afghanistan is facing endemic poverty, severe drought, and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran in the years since the Taliban takeover in 2021.
“This earthquake could not have come at a worse time,” said Jagan Chapagain, secretary-general of the Red Cross, in a statement late Tuesday.
“The disaster not only brings immediate suffering but also deepens Afghanistan’s already fragile humanitarian crisis.”
