Over 5,200 Homes Destroyed in Afghanistan Earthquake

The United Nations has confirmed that more than 5,200 homes were destroyed and 672 others damaged across 49 villages in eastern Afghanistan following the devastating earthquake that struck on 31 August.

Initial assessments by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed the scale of destruction caused by the 6.0-magnitude quake, which has so far claimed at least 2,200 lives. 

Officials warn that the death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are recovered from the rubble.

The UN estimates that around 500,000 people have been affected, more than half of them children, including Afghans forcibly returned from Pakistan and Iran.

Efforts to assess and deliver aid have been severely hampered by the region’s rugged terrain and ongoing aftershocks, which have ranged between magnitudes 5.2 and 5.6. 

Reaching the worst-hit areas has proven extremely difficult; the journey from Jalalabad, the nearest major city, takes over six hours along a single-lane mountain road, often blocked by landslides.

Humanitarian agencies report that aid convoys, including trucks loaded with emergency supplies, are struggling to access remote valleys where survivors are in urgent need of shelter, food, and medical support.

The earthquake is one of the deadliest to strike Afghanistan in recent years, compounding the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis and leaving tens of thousands of families displaced and vulnerable.