Earthquake rattles Afghanistan

The magnitude 6 tremor hit overnight, levelling villages, killing at least 800 people and injuring more than 2,800 in remote mountainside areas

- REUTERS

The shrinking of funding for Afghanistan, led by US aid cuts, was hampering the response Monday to a powerful earthquake in the east, with dozens of clinics closed and a helicopter out of use, humanitarian officials said.

The magnitude 6 tremor hit overnight, levelling villages, killing at least 800 people and injuring more than 2,800 in remote mountainside areas.

The ruling Taliban administration and aid officials have a daunting task to rescue and help thousands of Afghans with a tinier budget than ever and an economy in crisis.

“The actual delivery of response has been badly hit by the funding cuts this year, but also the number of people we have on the ground is much less than we would have had six months ago,” said Kate Carey, deputy head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan.

It was the third major deadly earthquake since the Taliban took over in 2021 in a nation also reeling from conflict, droughts, floods and the push-back of 2.1 million Afghans by neighbouring countries.