The provincial head of catastrophe administration, Ehsanullah Ehsan, says they can’t ‘predict’ the variety of our bodies trapped underneath the rubble.
Revealed On 2 Sep 2025
Rescuers are attempting to achieve distant areas in Afghanistan’s japanese Kunar area after a devastating earthquake killed greater than 1,120 folks and injured over 3,250, in keeping with the Afghan Purple Crescent Society, and flattened villages and buildings.
The demise toll is prone to rise. The Purple Crescent additionally stated 8,000 homes had been destroyed.
The provincial head of catastrophe administration, Ehsanullah Ehsan, stated early on Tuesday that efforts can be prolonged to extra of the area’s mountainous areas.
“We can not precisely predict what number of our bodies may nonetheless be trapped underneath the rubble,” stated Ehsan.
“Our effort is to finish these operations as quickly as potential and to start distributing assist to the affected households,” he famous, including that a few of those that have been injured have been transferred to hospitals within the capital, Kabul, and to the adjoining Nangarhar province.
Simply earlier than midnight on Sunday, a shallow magnitude 6 earthquake struck japanese Afghanistan – one of many deadliest the nation has skilled.
The mountainous terrain is making rescue work tough, with volunteers unable to achieve remoted areas alongside the Pakistani border, the place principally mud-brick properties have been destroyed.
In accordance with Ehsan, gaining car entry on the slim mountainous roads has been the primary impediment for reduction work.
‘Extraordinarily difficult’
In a situational replace, the World Well being Group (WHO) reiterated that the destruction of roads and the distant areas of many villages “severely impede the supply of assist”.
“The pre-earthquake fragility of the well being system means native capability is overwhelmed, creating whole dependence on exterior actors,” stated the WHO, including that greater than 12,000 folks had been affected.
Homa Nader, the performing deputy head of delegation with the Worldwide Federation of Purple Cross and Purple Crescent Societies in Afghanistan, advised Al Jazeera it has develop into “almost unimaginable” to proceed with the rescue effort as a result of destruction of roads.
“The challenges nonetheless stay. We had Andma, the catastrophe administration directive that got here in yesterday with heavy equipment to filter a few of the street and the rubble to have the ability to help with entry in order that humanitarian actors just like the Afghan Purple Crescent Society can go and function search and rescue operations, however sadly, it’s extraordinarily difficult,” Nader stated.
She added that whereas they look forward to a full incident report from the organisation, it’s “completely doubtless that these [death toll] numbers would dramatically improve as a result of we’re not attending to probably the most distant villages as of but”.
Afghanistan has skilled devastating earthquakes prior to now on account of its location on the assembly level the place the Indian and Eurasian plates converge.
The deadliest earthquake befell in October 2023, which killed greater than 2,000 folks in Herat province.
