Strong aftershocks to a powerful earthquake that killed more than 1,400 people at the weekend rattled eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday as survivors in remote hard-hit villages prepared for another night without shelter.
Temporary shelters had not yet reached the Mazar Dara area of Kunar province, an AFP journalist said, with roads still blocked to the remote, mountainous region bordering Pakistan where the worst of the earthquake was felt.
"There is no food... there is nothing, everything has been buried in the rubble," Nurgal district official Ijaz Ulhaq Yaad told AFP.
Residents, including elderly people and children were "in the open air" with little to protect them from wet weather, he said, adding that "we still feel strong aftershocks."
One of deadliest earthquakes in Afghanistan
A 5.2-magnitude earthquake hit the region near the epicentre of the magnitude 6.0 earthquake that hit late Sunday night – one of at least six aftershocks recorded by the US Geological Survey.
The number of victims from Sunday's earthquake has mounted steadily, with 1,411 people dead and 3,124 injured in Kunar alone, chief Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday, September 2, 2025.
The Sunday earthquake is one of the deadliest to hit the country in decades.
Another dozen people were killed and hundreds injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province.
More than 5,000 houses destroyed
Rescuers searched through the night and all day for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened in Kunar, where more than 5,400 houses were destroyed, government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said.
As military helicopters flew in food and continued to transport victims, residents buried their dead, including children.
Sunday's earthquake epicentre was about 27 kilometres from Jalalabad, according to the USGS, and just eight kilometres below the Earth's surface.
Such relatively shallow quakes can cause more damage.
Other earthquake incidents
Western Herat province was devastated in October 2023 by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 1,500 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.
A 5.9-magnitude quake struck the eastern province of Paktika in June 2022, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
