More than 900 people have died—and officials say that toll may rise—and around 3,000 were injured in an earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan late Sunday evening.
The 6.0-magnitude quake struck near the border with Pakistan, 27 km east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities. With a depth of only 8 km (5 mi) according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake was more likely to be destructive due to the shorter travel distance to structures above ground.
The quakes have reportedly damaged roads and cut off networks between towns and cities, and reduced some homes and infrastructures to rubble.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government’s spokesperson, told the media Monday that most of the casualties were in the province of Kunar. Mujahid also posted on X that local officials and residents “are currently engaged in rescue efforts for the affected people.”
Afghanistan, which has been run by the Taliban since the U.S. withdrew in 2021, sits in one of the world’s most seismically active zones, with the Hindu Kush mountain range a hotspot for such earthquakes due to interactions between the India and Eurasia tectonic plates. In 2023, more than 2,000 people died in a 6.3-magnitude quake that struck the western province of Herat, and in 2022, more than 1,000 were killed after a 5.9-magnitude quake hit the eastern part of the country.
The latest quake comes at a difficult time for Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, which has been battered by years of drought and is facing challenges in handling an influx of more than 2.4 million Afghans who have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan. On top of that, U.S. foreign aid funding cuts under President Donald Trump have severely hit Afghanistan’s healthcare system and food assistance programs.
Read More: ‘I’m Afraid:’ What U.S. Aid Cuts Mean for the Women of Afghanistan
“This adds death and destruction to other challenges including drought and the forced return of millions of Afghans from neighbouring countries,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi posted on X Monday. “Hopefully the donor community will not hesitate to support relief efforts.”
The Taliban itself has since appealed for more foreign aid. “We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses,” Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Afghan health ministry, told Reuters. The Taliban-led Afghan government has previously hampered the ability of humanitarian agencies to provide aid, including but not limited to requests for sensitive data and detention of aid workers.
In the wake of the Afghanistan quake, several organizations have begun search, rescue, and relief efforts. As with many natural disasters around the world, experts say the best way to help from afar is to donate funds that can best be used by these groups on the ground. Here’s what to know about some of the organizations responding to the quake and links so you can directly support them.
Afghan Relief
California-based nonprofit Afghan Relief said it has a team on the ground delivering emergency water, food, medical aid, and shelter to those affected by the quake. It appealed to donors, saying, “the scale of devastation is overwhelming, and we cannot do it alone.”
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross is calling for donations as trained volunteers from the Afghan Red Crescent Society assist in search-and-rescue missions and in the distribution of basic needs like food and drinking water to those affected. Donations, the British Red Cross said, will help facilitate the delivery of food, water, and medical supplies.
Doctors Without Borders
International medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it is in touch with Afghan authorities and health organizations to assess the level of support they can provide. Donations to the MSF allow direct healthcare delivery to people in need—through setting up and running medical services, building facilities, transporting supplies, and training staff.
GlobalGiving
Donations to the GlobalGiving Afghanistan Earthquake Relief Fund are expected to support emergency response efforts across affected areas—including search and rescue, medical care, food and water supply, and temporary shelters. In an email to TIME, GlobalGiving said that once initial relief work is complete, the relief fund “will transition to support longer-term recovery led by vetted, community-based organizations.”
International Committee of the Red Cross
Global humanitarian organization International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also issued an urgent call for donations for victims of the Afghanistan quake. “ICRC is present and delivers urgently needed aid,” it said.
International Rescue Committee
Crisis response group International Rescue Committee (IRC), which operates in more than 40 countries, said that the quake has destroyed “entire villages” and that earlier heavy rains and flooding complicated access to mountainous areas. Sherine Ibrahim, IRC’s Afghanistan director, said the recent quake “is likely to dwarf the scale of the humanitarian needs caused by the Herat earthquakes of 2023.”
“Within the first 12 hours, at least 2,000 people are reported to have been injured and entire roads and communities have been cut off from accessing nearby towns or hospitals,” Ibrahim said.
The IRC’s emergency response focuses on Nangarhar and Laghman provinces, where their teams are present.
Islamic Relief
U.K.-based relief and development charity Islamic Relief, which has worked in Afghanistan for more than two decades, said it deployed an emergency health team to provide critical care to survivors. Their team is responding in Kunar province in particular to provide essential health services like mother-and-child healthcare, treatment of injuries, and nutrition support.
“People have lost everything and desperately need healthcare, food, water, and shelter,” Ibrahim Ahmed Alhomadi, Islamic Relief’s head of programmes in Afghanistan, said. “The affected areas are remote, rural and mountainous, and landslides and floods make it even harder to reach them. These are poor villages and many of the homes are made from mud or flimsy materials that completely collapsed.”
Save the Children
Children-focused humanitarian group Save the Children said that since the earthquake came “without warning in the middle of the night,” many young ones have been left homeless and scared. “Children and their families were fast asleep in their homes—homes that are not built to withstand this,” said Save the Children Afghanistan’s Samira Sayed Rahman.
The group’s response consists of sending health teams to treat children and their families in Kunar and Nangarhar, providing essentials like clean water and giving out materials for temporary shelters, continued child education, and hygiene kits.
World Food Programme
The World Food Programme, a U.N. agency that provides food assistance particularly to people recovering from conflict, disasters, and climate change impacts, said it is “rushing food to affected communities in eastern Afghanistan” after the quake. Its aid includes high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units to support larger emergency response efforts. The United Nations Humanitarian Service, which the WFP manages, is also ready to operate additional flights to transport passengers and cargo to Jalalabad.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
In its call for donations, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the refugee situation in Afghanistan has complicated earthquake recovery efforts. “Survivors are sleeping in the open, exposed to the elements,” the donation page said. “Winter is fast approaching—and without urgent support, lives are at risk.”
The organization said that, along with partners on the ground, it was supporting rescue missions and delivering emergency supplies inside the country, such as tents for families and solar lamps to illuminate surroundings at night.
The post How to Help After Afghanistan Earthquake appeared first on TIME.
