Approaching 1,500 fatalities in Afghanistan due to recent earthquake

In the mountainous region bordering Pakistan, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, causing widespread devastation and loss of life. As of Thursday, at least 1,469 people have been reported dead, and more than 3,700 injured. The death toll is expected to rise as rescue teams continue to search for survivors trapped beneath collapsed homes in remote villages.

The earthquake has created a crisis within a crisis for Afghanistan, a country already grappling with endemic poverty, severe drought, and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back by neighbours Pakistan and Iran since the Taliban's 2021 takeover. The disaster has further exacerbated the humanitarian disasters facing the nation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that local healthcare services are under immense strain due to the earthquake, with shortages of trauma supplies, medicines, and staff. Jamshed Tanoli, the WHO emergency team lead in Afghanistan, stated that "every hour counts" and that hospitals are struggling, families are grieving, and survivors have lost everything.

The WHO has appealed for $4 million to deliver lifesaving health interventions and expand mobile health services and supply distribution. However, the loss of US foreign aid to Afghanistan in January this year has exacerbated the rapid depletion of emergency stockpiles and logistical resources.

The poor infrastructure in Afghanistan, caused by decades of war, has hindered the emergency response to the earthquake. Limited access to the hardest hit areas of Kunar province delayed rescue and relief efforts. Rockfalls from repeated aftershocks obstructed already precarious roads in the region.

NGOs and the UN have warned that the earthquake creates a crisis within a crisis, as Afghanistan is already contending with overlapping humanitarian disasters. The UN refugee chief, Filippo Grandi, stated that the quake had affected more than 500,000 people in eastern Afghanistan.

Deputy Taliban government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat stated that additional bodies were recovered during rescue efforts. Meanwhile, Pakistan began a new push to expel Afghans, with more than 6,300 people crossing the Torkham border point in quake-hit Nangarhar province on Tuesday.

The spokesperson for the World Relief Organization in Afghanistan, who announced on Monday the need for $4 million to provide essential health interventions and improve mobile health services and supplies in Afghanistan, remains unnamed.

As the window for finding survivors alive rapidly closes, the international community is urged to provide urgent assistance to Afghanistan to alleviate the suffering of the affected population and prevent further loss of life.