Afghanistan Hit by Earthquake Again, Over 20 Dead
Afghanistan has been struck by another earthquake, with more than 20 fatalities reported.
On Sunday night into Monday, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the north of Afghanistan, two months after the deadliest earthquake in the country's recent history. The tremor occurred just before 8:30 PM GMT in Kholm, Samangan province, near Mazar-e-Sharif, at a depth of 28 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
"Approximately 320 people were injured and over 20 killed" in the provinces of Samangan and Balkh, said Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, noting that this is a preliminary toll.
Earlier, the Afghan Disaster Management Authority reported that most of the injured in Samangan had returned home after receiving treatment.
In Mazar-e-Sharif, a major city in Balkh province, the Blue Mosque, a 15th-century jewel with stunning tiles, suffered damage: stones fell from the imposing structure, particularly at the minaret, littering the ground of this site, one of the few tourist attractions in the country, as observed by an AFP journalist.
Journalists were not immediately allowed to take images of the mosque.
The Ministry of Defense stated that they had cleared and reopened a road that had been blocked by landslides and had rescued individuals trapped overnight.
Tremors were felt as far away as the capital, Kabul, hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter, according to AFP journalists on-site.
- Seismic Zone -
This earthquake comes after a magnitude 6 quake that affected eastern provinces Kunar, Laghman, and Nangarhar at the end of August. This earthquake was the deadliest in Afghanistan's recent history, killing over 2,200 people, injuring nearly 4,000, and destroying 7,000 homes, according to Taliban authorities.
It was followed by numerous aftershocks, and the delivery of aid was hampered by difficult access to the affected areas, which were agricultural and remote, bordering Pakistan.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), $111.5 million is needed for the post-earthquake response in the eastern part of the country, which has left 221,000 people in a state of "acute need" for humanitarian assistance.
Afghanistan frequently experiences earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
Since 1900, northeastern Afghanistan has experienced 12 earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 7, according to Brian Baptie, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey.
The Taliban, back in power since 2021, have faced several earthquakes, including one in the Herat region, near the Iranian border, in 2023, which resulted in over 1,500 deaths and more than 63,000 homes destroyed.
