Afghanistan quake kills 20, injures over 300: health ministry
At least 20 people were killed in a powerful earthquake in northern Afghanistan, officials said Monday, just months after another deadly tremor shook the country.
The 6.3-magnitude earthquake occurred overnight at a depth of 28 kilometers (17 miles), with the epicenter near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman told reporters on Monday morning that more than 20 people were killed and approximately 320 people were injured in Balkh and Samangan provinces, emphasizing that this was a preliminary death toll.
It did not provide a statewide breakdown of casualties.
An AFP reporter observed that residents of Mazar-e-Sharif, one of Afghanistan’s largest northern cities, took to the streets for fear that their homes would be demolished.
An AFP journalist also witnessed damage to the city’s famous Blue Mosque, a 15th-century landmark known for its vibrant tiles.
Parts of the structure, particularly one of its minarets, were broken and scattered across the grounds of the mosque, one of the country’s few remaining tourist attractions.
Reporters in the capital, Kabul, about 420 kilometers to the south, said they also felt the tremors.
Poor communications networks and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities for hours or even days from reaching remote villages to assess the extent of damage.
It is the latest natural disaster for the Taliban government, which has faced three major deadly earthquakes since taking over Afghanistan in 2021, even as foreign aid, which forms the backbone of the country’s economy, has significantly reduced.
A shallow magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the east of the country in August destroyed mountainous villages and killed more than 2,200 people.
Major tremors in western Herat near the Iranian border in 2023 and in eastern Nangarhar province in 2022 killed hundreds of people and destroyed thousands of houses.
The United Nations and aid agencies have warned that hunger is increasing among the Afghan population.
The isolated country is suffering from a growing humanitarian crisis, with drought, economic restrictions in the banking sector and millions of Afghan citizens being pushed back from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
Many homes are shoddily built in the predominantly rural country, which has been devastated by decades of war.
It often takes hours or days to reach remote villages via steep roads and paths, where aid is often cut off due to disasters or bad weather.
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