Crumbling Hopes of Survivors Following Earthquake Catastrophe in Afghanistan - Earthquake in Afghanistan Provides Hope to Survivors
In the early hours of Monday, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. The disaster has left thousands of people affected and exacerbated the already dire humanitarian crisis in the region.
According to ActionAid, more than 12,000 people have been directly affected by the earthquake. The Afghan Women's Association, in cooperation with various organisations, has been coordinating emergency medical and evacuation efforts in Kunar. They have delivered water, food, and medical teams to remote villages like Mazar Dara Tal via limited helicopter support, despite challenging conditions.
The Johanniter organization deployed two mobile clinics in Kunar, providing daily medical treatment for up to 200 people in affected villages. Islamic Relief sent emergency teams focused on basic health services such as maternal and child care, wound treatment, nutrition, and trauma care in Kunar. The Afghan Red Crescent, supported by the German Red Cross, has provided ten mobile health teams, a mobile medical unit, seven outpatient health stations, medicine, psychosocial support, food, and drinking water distribution in Kunar and other provinces affected by the earthquake.
Tragically, many people are trapped in collapsed buildings, and the death toll is expected to rise. Afghan authorities and the United Nations anticipate that the final death toll could be significantly higher. At least 1,411 people have died in the province of Kunar alone.
The disaster is occurring in a region where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet, making earthquakes a common occurrence, particularly in the Hindu Kush. Many houses in Afghanistan, built from mud bricks, are vulnerable to earthquake damage, leaving many residents without shelter. No tents have been set up for survivors, leaving them to sleep outdoors.
The Taliban government's defense ministry organised 155 helicopter flights in two days to transport around 2,000 injured people and their families to hospitals. A Save the Children aid team walked about 20 kilometers to reach villages cut off by rockslides, carrying medical equipment on their backs to treat the injured.
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was already catastrophic following the takeover of power by the radical Islamic Taliban in August 2021. The World Food Programme (WFP) is providing food aid to earthquake victims, but the reality for many people in Afghanistan who were already suffering from hunger before the earthquake is brutal. Many areas in the mountainous border region with Pakistan remain difficult to access due to landslides and rockslides blocking access roads.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) states that this earthquake could not have come at a worse time. Western aid has since been significantly reduced, leaving the people of Afghanistan to face this disaster with limited support. The earthquake is causing immediate suffering and is likely to have long-lasting effects on the region.
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