On Monday morning, Afghanistan’s national television reported that the Taliban’s Disaster Management Authority announced a devastating earthquake struck Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan the previous night, killing at least 500 people and injuring 1,000 others. The affected areas include the Watapur, Manuki, Jabha Valley, Suki, and Nurgal districts.
The death toll remains uncertain due to conflicting official figures, and rescue and relief efforts are ongoing amid major logistical challenges, including blocked roads and inaccessible villages.
Earlier, authorities had warned of fears that hundreds may be dead or injured following a 6.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the rugged terrain of Kunar Province in northeastern Afghanistan. Rescue teams continued to search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed homes.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake struck at 19:17 GMT (just before midnight local time), with its epicenter in Nangarhar Province near the border with Pakistan. The quake occurred at a depth of 8 kilometers.
The Afghan Ministry of Health stated that accurate casualty figures have yet to be collected due to the scattered nature of the villages, which have a long history of earthquakes and floods. A ministry spokesperson said, “The number of dead and injured is high, but due to the difficulty of accessing the area, our teams are still on site.”
Local media official Najibullah Hanif reported that hundreds of injured individuals have been transported to hospitals, and the numbers are expected to rise as reports come in from remote areas with limited road access.
Officials added that rescue workers are operating in several regions of the mountainous province, where the midnight earthquake—measuring 10 kilometers deep—flattened mud and stone homes near the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Afghanistan frequently experiences deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range. A series of earthquakes in the western part of the country last year killed over 1,000 people, highlighting the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest nations to natural disasters.