Mass rescue begins in Afghanistan after devastating earthquake
The death toll from the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has risen to at least 800, and 2,800 are injured, according to a Taliban government spokesman.
The United Nations, the Afghan Red Crescent and the Taliban government have mobilized this Monday to launch a massive rescue operation in eastern Afghanistan, where a devastating earthquake on Sunday night left hundreds of people dead.
According to the latest information from a press conference in Kabul, the main government spokesman Taliban leader Zabihullah Mujahid said more than 800 people were killed and 2,700 injured in eastern Afghanistan after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake, followed by five aftershocks felt hundreds of miles away. Initial death tolls on Monday morning were at least 600 dead.
In Kunar province, 800 people were killed and 2,500 injured, Mujahid said, while in neighboring Nangahar province, where the quake was at its epicenter, 12 people were killed and 255 were injured.
Zabihullah Mujahid said in a brief statement on X that “local officials and residents are already involved in the rescue efforts for those affected.”
In addition, “support teams from the center and nearby provinces are also on the way, and all available resources will be used to save lives,” he added.
The UN mission in the country (UNAMA) has deployed personnel to deliver “emergency assistance and life-saving support,” while the Afghan Red Crescent has already sent medical teams to the epicenter of the destruction in Nangahar province. Kunar.
Population extremely vulnerable to earthquakes
Kunar, where the devastation is concentrated, is a remote province bordering Pakistan nestled in the valleys of the Hindu Kush mountain range, and its population mostly lives in precarious mud and straw houses, extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.
This structural fragility, added to decades of conflict and the lack of infrastructure, has magnified the impact of the catastrophe.
The earthquake, registered at 23:47 on Sunday (19:17 GMT on Sunday) at a depth of eight kilometers,triggered numerous landslides that have blocked the already scarce roads, completely isolating dozens of villages.
This earthquake is the most serious that Afghanistan has suffered since October 2023, when a series of earthquakes devastated the western province of Herat, causing more than 1,500 deaths.