A strong earthquake killed at least 20 people in northern Afghanistan, authorities said Monday, just months after another deadly tremor left the country reeling.
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred overnight at a depth of 28 kilometers and had its epicenter near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
More than 20 people were killed and around 320 injured in Balkh and Samangan provinces, Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told reporters on Monday morning, stressing that this was a preliminary figure.
It did not provide a breakdown of victims across the province.
Residents of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the largest cities in northern Afghanistan, took to the streets fearing their houses would collapse, a AFP observed the correspondent.
The city’s famous Blue Mosque, a 15th-century monument known for its vibrant tiles, was also damaged, a AFP The journalist was a witness.
Pieces of the structure, particularly one of its minarets, fell off and were scattered across the grounds of the mosque, one of the few remaining tourist sites in the country.
Correspondents in the capital, Kabul, about 420 kilometers to the south, also said they felt tremors.
Power supply company DABS said power lines imported from Uzbekistan had been cut due to the earthquake, leaving parts of nine provinces without electricity. Toló News reported.
The Afghan Taliban Defense Ministry said parts of Balkh and Samangan provinces were the worst affected, resulting in deaths among several citizens.
Military rescue and emergency assistance teams arrived in the area immediately and began operations to rescue people, transport the injured and assist affected families, it said in a statement.
The USGS issued an orange alert on its PAGER system, which is an automated system that produces information on the impact of earthquakes, stating that “significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread.”
Videos of rescue efforts being carried out to save people trapped under rubble and images of fallen debris on buildings were shared on social media platform X.
Video showed rescuers removing what appeared to be bodies from the rubble. Reuters The footage and images could not immediately be verified.
Active faults
Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
Many houses in this predominantly rural country, devastated by decades of war, are poorly built.
It often takes hours or days to travel over steep roads and trails to remote villages, which are often deprived of help during disasters or bad weather.
Poor communication networks and infrastructure in Afghanistan’s mountains have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities from reaching remote villages for hours or even days to assess the extent of the damage.
It is the latest natural disaster for the Taliban government, which has faced three major deadly earthquakes since it took over Afghanistan in 2021, even as the foreign aid that formed the backbone of the country’s economy has declined sharply.
In August, a shallow magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the east of the country leveled villages on the mountain slopes and killed more than 2,200 people.
Large tremors in western Herat, near the border with Iran, in 2023, and in eastern Nangarhar province in 2022 killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes.
The United Nations and aid agencies have warned that hunger is increasing among the Afghan population.
The isolated country is suffering a humanitarian crisis aggravated by drought, economic restrictions on the banking sector and the rejection of millions of Afghan citizens from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
Additional contributions from Reuters
