Earthquake kills 1,000 but aid complicated by Taliban’ s grip on power

An earthquake in the east of Afghanistan has killed 1,000 people and injured 1,500 more.

Rescue efforts are likely to be complicated since many international aid agencies left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the country last year.

Information remained scarce on the magnitude 6.1 earthquake near the Pakistani border, but quakes of that strength can cause severe damage in an area where homes and other buildings are poorly constructed and landslides are common.

Experts put the depth at just six miles – another factor that could increase the impact.

Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said the epicentre was in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, 31 miles southwest of the city of Khost.

Buildings were also damaged in Khost province, and tremors were felt as far away as the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

The European seismological agency, EMSC, said tremors were felt more than 310 miles away by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Footage from Paktika showed men carrying people in blankets to waiting helicopters. Others were treated on the ground.

One resident could be seen receiving IV fluids while sitting in a plastic chair outside the rubble of his home. Others were sprawled on stretchers.

Some images showed residents picking through clay bricks and other rubble from destroyed stone houses, some of whose roofs or walls had caved in.

The death toll makes it the deadliest since 2002, when a 6.1 magnitude quake killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan immediately after the US-led invasion overthrew the Taliban.

In most places, an earthquake of this magnitude would not inflict such extensive devastation, said Robert Sanders, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey.

He added the death toll more often comes down to geography, building quality and population density.

“Because of the mountainous area, there are rock slides and landslides we won’t know about until later. Older buildings are likely to crumble and fail,” he said.

“Due to how condensed the area is in that part of the world, we’ve seen in the past similar earthquakes deal significant damage.”

It was also reported by a state news agency that 90 houses had been destroyed in Paktika and dozens of people were believed trapped under the rubble.

The Afghan Red Crescent Society has sent some 4,000 blankets, 800 tents and 800 kitchen kits.

The “response is on its way”, the UN resident co-ordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, wrote on Twitter.

But it may prove difficult given the situation Afghanistan finds itself in. After the Taliban swept to power in 2021, many international aid organisations left due to security fears and the Taliban’s poor human rights record.

The Taliban has worked with Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on restarting airport operations in Kabul and across the country but nearly all international carriers still avoid the country, and reluctance on the part of aid organisations to put any money into Taliban coffers could make it difficult to fly in supplies and equipment.

DESTROYED: The 6.1 magnitude quake has left ruined buildings in its wake in the province of Paktika near the border with Pakistan.