More than 800 people died in Afghanistan 6.0 Magnitude Earthquake
A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan, killing hundreds and wounding thousands more.
KABUL – One of Afghanistan’s worst earthquakes killed more than 800 people and injured at least 2,800 people, authorities said on September 1 that the injured person was ferried to the hospital after helicopters were pulled out of a tiled bleed house captured for survivors.
The disaster is set to further expand the resources of the war-torn Taliban regime, which is already tackling a humanitarian crisis, from a sharp drop in aid to the pushing down hundreds of thousands of Afghans by neighboring countries.
Sharafat Zaman, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Kabul, called for international assistance to tackle the devastation from a magnitude 6 Quake that collided in the middle of the night at six miles deep.
“A lot of people lost their lives and homes here, so we need it,” he told Reuters.
The earthquake killed 812 people in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the government.
Rescuers were fighting to reach remote mountainous regions separated from mobile networks along Pakistan’s border.
“All… teams are mobilised to accelerate their support, so we can now provide comprehensive and full support,” said Abdul Maten Qanee, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, citing efforts in areas ranging from security to food and health.
Television images from Reuters show helicopters sprinting through ferries over affected people, and residents helped security forces and medical science transport injured people from areas with a long history of earthquakes and floods to ambulances.
In a statement that Flight 40 were injured and killed, the Ministry of Defense said military rescue teams had incited the entire region.
The earthquake destroyed three villages in Kunar and caused great damage to many other people, authorities said. At least 610 people have died in Kunar and 12 have died in Nangarhar, they added.
It has been Afghanistan’s third major deadly tremor since the Taliban retreated due to foreign troops in 2021, causing cuts in international funding that formed a large part of the government’s finances.
Even humanitarian assistance aimed at bypassing political institutions to meet urgent needs has shrunk to $767 million this year, down from $3.8 billion in 2022.
The 6.1 magnitude earthquake that killed 1,000 people in the eastern region that year was the first major natural disaster faced by the Taliban government.
Seeking funds
Humanitarian agencies say they are fighting a forgotten crisis in Afghanistan. Afghanistan estimates that more than half of its population is in urgent need for humanitarian assistance.
Diplomats and aid authorities say they are in crisis elsewhere around the world, and have spurred funding cuts along with donors’ complaints about Taliban policies towards Taliban women, including curbs for aid workers.
“So far, there has been no reaching out to foreign governments to provide assistance in rescue and relief efforts,” said a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry.
China was “prepared to provide disaster relief assistance according to Afghanistan’s needs and within its capabilities,” a foreign ministry spokesman said later.
In a post in X, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said its mission in Afghanistan is preparing to help people in areas that have been devastated by the earthquake.
Humanitarian officials and locals say that nearly two years after a powerful tremor hit the western city of Herat, many villages still recover and live in temporary structures.
Afghanistan is prone to fatal earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush Mountains, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
(Reporting and writing by Mohammad Yunus Yawal of Kabul, Saeed Shah and Charlotte Greenfield of Islamabad, Mirinai Dei and Fritham Mukherjee, Editing by Aliba Shahid and Sudipt Ganguly and Clarence Fernandez)
