Members of the Afghan Red Crescent search for victims beneath rubble after an earthquake struck the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar near Jalalabad on Sunday. There are now 2,205 people dead. Photo by Afghan Red Crescent | License Photo
Sunday’s earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has now killed 2,205 people and injured 3,640, according to a Taliban government spokesperson.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the magnitude 6.0 earthquake’s epicenter that struck around midnight Sunday was about 17 miles east of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar Province.
Search and rescue efforts continue, said Hamdullah Fitrat, a Taliban spokesperson, on X.
“Tents have been installed for displaced families in multiple locations, and the organized distribution of primary and urgent humanitarian assistance is currently underway,” he said.
Aftershocks struck amid rescue efforts, including a 5.2 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday about 20 miles northeast of Jalalabad, the USGS said.
About 8,000 houses were destroyed in Nangarhar Province.
Ministry of Public Health Public Relations Director Dr. Sharafat zaman Amar posted images of injured children to social media Tuesday from Nangarhar Provincial Hospital in Jalalabad. The children, he said, are “lying together on beds who have no parents or relatives, and they are enduring these harsh moments of life in pain, fatherless and motherless.”
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies acting head of delegation Joy Singhal said Sunday, “The situation on the ground is quite critical.”
The U.N. Development agency reported Monday it responded to Dewagal Valley in Kunar, where over 200 were killed, 500 were injured and many remained trapped.
“Homes and key infrastructure are destroyed,” it stated in an X post. “We’re working to meet urgent needs: shelter, water, food, medicines, livelihoods.”
The UNDP based in Afghanistan posted Tuesday that “Urgent support from the world is needed so people can recover and rebuild.”
The U.N. International Organization for Migration’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific further reported Tuesday that flash flooding caused by heavy rains have “swept through Nangarhar and Kunar, impacting over 400 families and damaging homes, roads, and farmland.”
