Afghanistan Earthquake 2025: 622 Dead, 1,500 Injured

A devastating 6.0-magnitude Afghanistan earthquake has claimed hundreds of lives and injured thousands, ravaging remote eastern regions. The death toll continues to rise as rescue operations face mountainous terrain and limited infrastructure.

Introduction

Afghanistan confronted one of its most catastrophic natural disasters when a powerful earthquake tore through the eastern provinces late Sunday night, August 31, 2025. The seismic event shattered communities across Kunar, Nangarhar, and Laghman, claiming over 600 lives and injuring more than 1,500 people in a matter of seconds. Yet amid the rubble and grief, stories of survival and resilience have begun to surface, showcasing the indomitable spirit of the Afghan people as they work tirelessly to rebuild their shattered communities.

This comprehensive report examines the disaster from multiple angles—the immediate impact, the geological forces at play, the heroic rescue operations, the human stories behind the statistics, and the critical path forward for a nation that has weathered far too many storms.

Earthquake Overview: A Night That Changed Everything

The Tremor That Shook a Nation

At precisely 11:47 p.m. local time on August 31, 2025, the earth beneath eastern Afghanistan convulsed with terrifying force. The United States Geological Survey registered the earthquake at 6.0 magnitude, with an epicenter located near Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. What made this particular seismic event so deadly was its shallow depth—just 8 to 10 kilometers below the surface—which amplified its destructive potential exponentially.

The tremors radiated outward from the epicenter with devastating efficiency. Buildings swayed violently in Jalalabad, while residents in Kabul, approximately 150 kilometers to the west, rushed into streets as structures groaned and shook. The seismic waves traveled even farther, rattling buildings across the border in Islamabad, Pakistan, where residents reported feeling their homes shake for nearly 20 seconds.

The Toll: Numbers That Tell a Tragic Story

According to official reports from Afghan authorities released on September 1, 2025, the death toll has reached at least 622 confirmed fatalities, with that number expected to climb as rescue teams reach more remote areas. The injury count has surpassed 1,500, overwhelming the region’s already strained medical infrastructure.

Kunar province bore the brunt of the disaster, accounting for 610 of the confirmed deaths—nearly 98% of the total fatalities. This mountainous province, characterized by its rugged terrain and scattered villages, proved particularly vulnerable. Nangarhar province, despite hosting the epicenter near Jalalabad, reported 12 confirmed deaths but more than 250 injuries, suggesting that urban building codes may have prevented even greater loss of life in the provincial capital. Laghman province also reported casualties and significant structural damage, though exact figures remain under verification.

The catastrophe represents one of the deadliest natural disasters to strike Afghanistan in recent memory and ranks among 2025’s most devastating earthquakes globally.

Ground Realities: When Mountains Collapse and Communities Vanish

Villages Reduced to Dust

The districts of Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi, and Chapadare—names that few outside the region knew before August 31—have now become synonymous with devastation. These remote settlements, built primarily from mud bricks, stone, and timber, stood no chance against the violent shaking.

Entire villages simply ceased to exist in the span of 30 seconds. Multi-generational homes that had stood for decades collapsed inward, burying families as they slept. The traditional Afghan architectural style, while culturally significant and suited to the region’s climate, proved tragically inadequate against seismic forces.

Eyewitness accounts paint a harrowing picture. One survivor from Nur Gul district described waking to “a sound like thunder underground” before his home’s walls began to crack and crumble. “I grabbed my youngest son and ran,” he told relief workers. “When I looked back, everything was gone. My wife, my other children, my parents—all buried under stones and wood.”

The Challenge of Geography

Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain, while breathtaking in its stark beauty, has transformed into a formidable adversary for rescue operations. The earthquake triggered numerous landslides that blocked already precarious mountain roads, severing the lifelines connecting remote communities to urban centers.

In the immediate aftermath, entire villages remained unreachable for 12 to 18 hours. The narrow, winding roads that snake through the Hindu Kush mountains—many barely wide enough for a single vehicle—became choked with debris. Massive boulders, some weighing several tons, created barriers that required heavy equipment to clear, equipment that itself couldn’t reach the blockages.

Communication networks collapsed across the affected regions. Cell towers lost power, landline infrastructure crumbled, and the vital flow of information slowed to a trickle. Families in Kabul spent agonizing hours unable to confirm whether their relatives in Kunar had survived.

The Immediate Response: Racing Against Time

Despite overwhelming obstacles, rescue operations commenced within hours of the earthquake. The Afghan interim administration deployed security forces and whatever emergency personnel could be mobilized. Helicopters, precious few in number, began shuttling between Jalalabad and the devastated districts, airlifting the most critically injured to hospitals.

On the ground, the response was decidedly more grassroots. Neighbors dug through rubble with their bare hands, ignoring their own injuries to search for survivors. Local mosques transformed into makeshift triage centers, with community elders organizing volunteers into search teams. Young men formed human chains to pass debris piece by piece, occasionally rewarded with the miraculous discovery of someone still alive beneath the wreckage.

The first 72 hours proved critical. Survivors pulled from collapsed structures during this window stood a significantly better chance of recovery. Yet many areas didn’t receive organized rescue teams until well past that crucial timeframe, a reality that undoubtedly cost lives.

Geological Context: Why Afghanistan Sits on Shaking Ground

The Hindu Kush Seismic Zone

To understand why Afghanistan experiences such devastating earthquakes with tragic regularity, one must look deep beneath the surface to the titanic geological forces at work. The Hindu Kush region sits at one of Earth’s most seismically active zones, where the Indian tectonic plate continues its relentless northward collision with the Eurasian plate—a process that has been ongoing for roughly 50 million years.

This collision occurs at a rate of approximately 40 to 50 millimeters per year. While that might seem glacially slow, the accumulated stress along fault lines must periodically be released, and when it does, the results can be catastrophic. The Hindu Kush mountains themselves are a product of this ongoing collision, thrust upward by incomprehensible forces operating miles below the surface.

The August 31 earthquake originated from what geologists classify as shallow crustal activity. Unlike deeper earthquakes that occur at subduction zones, shallow earthquakes—particularly those occurring at depths of less than 15 kilometers—deliver their energy more directly to the surface. The seismic waves have less distance to travel and less opportunity to dissipate, meaning that a 6.0-magnitude earthquake at 8 kilometers depth can cause destruction comparable to a much larger earthquake occurring at greater depth.

Amplification Through Vulnerability

The earthquake’s destructive power was amplified by human factors. Decades of conflict, political instability, and economic hardship have left Afghanistan with virtually no enforced building codes, particularly in rural areas. Traditional construction methods, passed down through generations, prioritize readily available materials and time-tested techniques rather than seismic resistance.

Mud brick walls, while providing excellent thermal insulation and utilizing local materials, lack the tensile strength to withstand lateral forces. When the ground shakes horizontally, these walls simply crumble. Stone construction, while more durable, often lacks proper mortar or reinforcement. Timber framing, when used, is rarely engineered to provide structural redundancy.

The cumulative result is a built environment exquisitely vulnerable to earthquake damage. Even a moderate earthquake by global standards—and 6.0 magnitude is considered strong but not extreme—can produce catastrophic results in such conditions.

The Aftershock Threat

The primary earthquake was not an isolated event. In the days following August 31, seismologists recorded dozens of aftershocks, several exceeding 4.0 magnitude. These subsequent tremors, while less powerful than the main shock, posed a continued threat to already weakened structures and terrorized survivors trying to recover.

Aftershock sequences can continue for weeks or even months following a major earthquake, though they typically decrease in frequency and magnitude over time. Each aftershock not only causes additional damage but also traumatizes populations already on edge, making recovery and reconstruction psychologically more difficult.

Rescue Operations: Heroes Emerge From the Rubble

Airborne Salvation

Afghanistan’s limited helicopter fleet became an invaluable asset in the rescue operation. Mi-17 transport helicopters, workhorses of the Afghan military, flew sortie after sortie into the mountain districts. Pilots navigated treacherous mountain air currents and improvised landing zones in villages where no helicopter had ever landed before.

Each flight represented a calculated risk. The helicopters operated near their altitude limits in the thin mountain air, with pilots having to make difficult decisions about how many injured passengers they could safely carry. Medical personnel aboard performed triage on the fly, determining who was stable enough to survive the flight to Jalalabad’s hospitals.

By September 3, helicopters had evacuated over 300 critically injured individuals, many of whom would not have survived without rapid access to advanced medical care.

Ground-Level Heroism

The real heroes of the rescue operation, however, were the ordinary Afghans who refused to wait for official help. Teachers, shopkeepers, farmers, and day laborers transformed themselves into search and rescue teams through sheer determination.

One particularly moving account emerged from Watpur district. A local schoolteacher named Abdullah organized 40 young men from his village. Using nothing more sophisticated than crowbars, shovels, and their hands, they systematically worked through collapsed homes. Over three days, Abdullah’s team pulled 27 people alive from the rubble and recovered the bodies of 63 others, ensuring they could receive proper burial according to Islamic tradition.

“We couldn’t just sit and wait,” Abdullah explained to a journalist. “These were our neighbors, our relatives, our students. Every minute counted.”

Local clinics operated under impossible conditions. Dr. Rashida, who runs a small medical facility in Soki district, described treating over 200 injured people in the first 48 hours. “We ran out of painkillers, bandages, antibiotics—everything—within the first day,” she said. “We were washing and reusing bandages. We had no electricity, so surgeries were performed by flashlight and phone light. But we saved as many as we could.”

International and NGO Response

International aid organizations began mobilizing within 24 hours of the earthquake. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) activated its emergency response protocols. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies announced they were deploying emergency medical teams and supplies.

However, Afghanistan’s complex political situation complicated aid delivery. International sanctions, limited diplomatic recognition of the interim government, and concerns about aid diversion created bureaucratic obstacles that delayed some relief shipments. Still, numerous NGOs with existing presences in Afghanistan—including Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children, and others—rapidly scaled up operations.

By September 5, international aid flights had begun arriving in Kabul, carrying emergency medical supplies, temporary shelter materials, and other essential items. Distribution networks, however, remained challenged by the same terrain and infrastructure problems that had hampered initial rescue efforts.

The Human Cost: Stories Behind the Statistics

Families Destroyed in Seconds

Every statistic represents a human being, a family, a community. In Kunar province, the Ahmadi family lost 18 members across three generations in a single collapsed compound. Only two young men survived, having been away working in Jalalabad when the earthquake struck. They returned to find their entire family gone—grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins all buried together.

Similar stories repeated themselves across the region. Entire family trees were pruned back to bare branches in moments. Children became orphans, parents lost all their children, elderly grandparents became the sole survivors of multi-generational households.

The psychological trauma of such losses defies easy description. In Afghan culture, extended families often live in close proximity, sometimes within single large compounds. The earthquake didn’t just kill individuals—it destroyed entire social networks and support systems that had existed for generations.

Women and Children: The Most Vulnerable

A disproportionate number of casualties were women and children. Traditional Afghan daily patterns meant that men were more likely to be outside homes or in more structurally sound community buildings during the late evening. Women and children, particularly in conservative rural areas, were more likely to be inside homes when the earthquake struck.

The gender dimension of the disaster extends beyond immediate casualties. Widowed women with children face particular challenges in Afghan society, especially in rural areas where economic opportunities are limited. Many now find themselves responsible for families without clear means of support.

Children who survived but lost parents face an uncertain future. Afghanistan’s limited social services and child welfare infrastructure means many will depend on extended family members—themselves struggling with trauma and economic hardship—or potentially face institutionalization in orphanages operating under difficult conditions.

Medical Trauma and Overwhelmed Facilities

Jalalabad’s main hospital, Nangarhar Regional Hospital, faced an unprecedented surge in patients. Dr. Mohammad Akbar, an emergency physician there, worked 36 hours straight in the disaster’s immediate aftermath. “We had injured people lying in hallways, in parking lots, anywhere we could find space,” he recalled. “We had to perform amputations without proper anesthesia because our supplies ran out. The screams still haunt me.”

The types of injuries reflected the nature of the disaster. Crush injuries from collapsed walls and roofs predominated. Many victims had suffered for hours pinned beneath debris before rescue, leading to complications like compartment syndrome and kidney failure from muscle breakdown. Penetrating injuries from sharp debris, fractures, and head trauma were also common.

Many injured survivors will face lifelong disabilities. Amputations, spinal cord injuries, and traumatic brain injuries will require ongoing care that Afghanistan’s healthcare system struggles to provide even under normal circumstances. The earthquake created a cohort of disabled individuals who will need support for decades to come.

Psychological Wounds

The psychological impact of the earthquake rivals its physical toll. Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety have become widespread in the affected regions. Many survivors refuse to sleep indoors, instead spending nights in open fields despite cooling autumn temperatures, terrified of being trapped should another earthquake strike.

Children exhibit particularly concerning symptoms. Nightmares, bed-wetting, inability to concentrate, and heightened anxiety responses have been observed widely. However, access to mental health services remains extremely limited. Afghanistan has fewer than 100 trained mental health professionals for a population exceeding 40 million, and most are concentrated in Kabul.

Community and religious leaders have stepped into this gap, providing traditional forms of support and counseling. Mosques have organized group gatherings where survivors can share their experiences and receive spiritual comfort. While valuable, these efforts cannot fully substitute for professional mental health care.

Historical Context: A Pattern of Seismic Tragedy

Recent Earthquakes That Scarred the Nation

The August 31, 2025 earthquake is tragically not an anomaly but rather the latest in a series of devastating seismic events that have struck Afghanistan in recent years.

In June 2022, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck Paktika and Khost provinces in southeastern Afghanistan. That disaster killed over 1,000 people and injured at least 1,500 more. The earthquake destroyed or damaged approximately 10,000 homes, displacing tens of thousands. The international response was limited due to political complications following the change in government the previous year.

October 2023 brought another tragedy when a series of earthquakes struck Herat province in western Afghanistan. The initial 6.3-magnitude earthquake was followed by powerful aftershocks. While casualty figures were lower than the 2022 event—approximately 1,500 dead—the cumulative trauma of repeated earthquakes days apart deepened psychological wounds and complicated rescue operations.

These recent events occurred against a backdrop of longer seismic history. The 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake, a powerful 7.5-magnitude event centered in the Hindu Kush mountain range, killed over 300 people across Afghanistan and Pakistan and was felt as far away as New Delhi. The 1998 Takhar earthquake killed approximately 4,000 people in northern Afghanistan.

Why Afghanistan Remains Vulnerable

Afghanistan’s seismic vulnerability shows no signs of decreasing. The geological forces that generate these earthquakes will continue operating for millions of years. Climate change may even increase risk in some ways—glacier melt and changes in groundwater can potentially alter stress on fault lines, though research in this area remains preliminary.

More fundamentally, Afghanistan lacks the resources and stability to implement comprehensive earthquake mitigation strategies. Nations like Japan, Chile, and New Zealand—all highly seismic—have dramatically reduced earthquake casualties through strict building codes, early warning systems, and extensive public education. Such measures require sustained governance, economic investment, and technical expertise that Afghanistan currently cannot marshal.

International development efforts have included earthquake-resistant construction training programs, but these have reached only a fraction of Afghanistan’s population. The majority of rural construction continues using traditional methods, ensuring that future earthquakes will continue claiming lives.

The Path Forward: Building Resilience From Ruins

Immediate Humanitarian Priorities

As September 2025 progresses, the immediate focus remains on meeting basic survival needs for earthquake survivors. Tens of thousands of people are without adequate shelter as autumn temperatures begin dropping. The Hindu Kush region experiences harsh winters, and many displaced families face the prospect of spending winter months in tents or temporary structures.

Humanitarian priorities include:

Emergency shelter: Providing weatherproof tents, blankets, and heating fuel before winter arrives in earnest. Organizations are racing to distribute shelter supplies before mountain passes become impassable due to snow.

Food security: Many survivors lost their stored food supplies and will miss the upcoming harvest season due to displacement. Food distributions must continue for months.

Clean water and sanitation: Collapsed infrastructure has contaminated water sources in many areas. Without adequate sanitation, disease outbreaks become a serious risk in crowded displacement camps.

Medical care: Beyond treating initial injuries, ongoing medical needs include chronic disease management, maternal health services, and mental health support. Medical supply chains must be established to serve temporary settlement locations.

Education continuity: Schools were destroyed in many areas. Providing educational services in temporary facilities helps restore normalcy for children and prevents long-term educational disruption.

Infrastructure Reconstruction

Rebuilding will require years of sustained effort. Road networks must be restored to ensure year-round access to mountain communities. This means not just clearing landslides but engineering roads with better drainage and slope stabilization to prevent future blockages.

Communications infrastructure needs hardening against future disasters. Installing backup power systems for cell towers, creating redundant communication pathways, and potentially deploying satellite communication systems for remote areas could prevent the information blackouts that hampered the August 31 response.

Medical facilities require not just rebuilding but upgrading. Designing earthquake-resistant hospitals and clinics with backup power, adequate supplies, and trained personnel would significantly improve future disaster response capacity.

Seismic-Resistant Construction

Perhaps the most critical long-term intervention is transforming how Afghanistan builds. This doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning traditional materials—mud brick and stone will remain primary construction materials in rural areas due to availability and cost. However, these materials can be used in earthquake-resistant configurations.

Techniques include:

Reinforcement: Adding wooden or bamboo reinforcement to mud brick walls significantly improves their ability to withstand shaking. These materials are locally available and affordable.

Wall ties: Connecting walls to each other and to roof structures prevents separation during earthquakes, a primary failure mode in traditional construction.

Foundation improvements: Even simple improvements like stone foundations or wooden sills can prevent wall collapse.

Lightweight roofing: Replacing heavy earth roofs with lighter materials reduces the crushing risk if collapse does occur.

Implementing these improvements requires training programs for local builders, demonstration projects, and potentially incentive programs. The challenge is doing this at scale across a country where most construction happens informally without government oversight.

Early Warning and Preparedness

While earthquake prediction remains impossible, early warning systems can provide seconds to minutes of notice—enough time to move to safety. Countries like Mexico and Japan have implemented such systems successfully. For Afghanistan, a basic seismic monitoring network feeding into a mobile phone alert system could be established relatively affordably.

Beyond technological solutions, community preparedness education makes a significant difference. Teaching populations to identify safe locations, conduct “drop, cover, and hold” responses, and organize community response teams costs little but saves lives. Schools provide an ideal venue for such education, reaching children who can spread knowledge to families.

International Cooperation and Aid Architecture

Afghanistan’s earthquake vulnerability is not solely Afghanistan’s problem. The international community has both humanitarian and practical interests in reducing disaster impacts. Refugees fleeing disaster zones create regional instability. Economic disruption affects neighboring countries through trade and labor market impacts.

Creating effective international aid architecture for Afghanistan remains challenging given political realities. However, apolitical humanitarian mechanisms focused specifically on disaster risk reduction could potentially attract broader support. Channeling aid through NGOs, UN agencies, and local community organizations rather than government structures might address some concerns while ensuring assistance reaches vulnerable populations.

Regional cooperation with Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and other neighbors could improve cross-border disaster response, share seismic monitoring data, and coordinate building code development.

Conclusion: A Nation’s Resilience Tested Again

The Afghanistan earthquake of August 31, 2025, claimed over 600 lives in mere seconds, injured more than 1,500, and displaced tens of thousands. Entire communities vanished beneath collapsing structures, and families were torn apart in ways that will echo through generations.

Yet amid the overwhelming tragedy, glimpses of hope persist. Neighbors risked their lives digging through rubble to save strangers. Medical professionals worked to exhaustion treating the injured under impossible conditions. Communities began organizing reconstruction efforts before the dust had settled. These acts of courage and compassion demonstrate the resilient spirit that has allowed Afghans to endure decades of hardship.

The earthquake serves as a stark reminder that Afghanistan’s seismic vulnerability will not disappear. The same geological forces that created the magnificent Hindu Kush mountains ensure that future earthquakes are inevitable. What remains uncertain is whether this tragedy will catalyze the changes needed to reduce future casualties—improved construction practices, early warning systems, stronger emergency response capacity, and sustained international support for disaster risk reduction.

Afghanistan stands at a crossroads. The path of least resistance leads to repeating the same cycle of disaster, crisis response, temporary relief, and gradual forgetting until the next earthquake strikes. The harder path—requiring sustained commitment from both Afghans and the international community—leads toward genuine resilience, where communities can withstand earthquakes without catastrophic loss of life.

The families mourning loved ones lost on August 31 deserve better than empty promises. They deserve action, investment, and the assurance that their losses will spur changes that protect future generations. Whether Afghanistan and the world rise to meet this challenge will determine how history judges our response to this tragedy.

Call to Action

If you have family or connections affected by the earthquake, reach out through established humanitarian channels and verified relief organizations. Local NGOs operating in Kunar, Nangarhar, and Laghman provinces urgently need support.

For those wanting to help, donate to reputable organizations with proven track records in Afghanistan, including Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Save the Children, and UN agencies. Verify organizations before donating and favor unrestricted donations that allow responders to address evolving needs.

Share accurate information from verified sources to combat misinformation that can hamper relief efforts. Amplify the voices of affected communities and advocate for sustained international support for disaster risk reduction in Afghanistan.

Frequently Asked Questions

When exactly did the Afghanistan earthquake occur?

The earthquake struck on Sunday, August 31, 2025, at precisely 11:47 p.m. local Afghanistan time.

The timing—late at night when most people were sleeping indoors—significantly contributed to the high casualty rate, as families were trapped inside their homes when structures collapsed.

What was the magnitude and depth of the earthquake?

The United States Geological Survey measured the earthquake at 6.0 magnitude. The epicenter was located near Jalalabad in Nangarhar province at an unusually shallow depth of approximately 8 to 10 kilometers below the surface.

This shallow depth is critical to understanding the earthquake’s destructive power—shallow earthquakes deliver their energy more directly to the surface, causing greater damage than deeper earthquakes of similar magnitude.

What are the confirmed casualty figures?

As of the latest official reports released on September 1, 2025, at least 622 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 1,500 injured.

These figures are expected to rise as rescue teams reach more remote areas and as some of the critically injured succumb to their wounds. Kunar province suffered the highest toll with 610 confirmed deaths—representing 98% of all fatalities.

Nangarhar province reported 12 deaths but more than 250 injuries, while Laghman province also reported casualties still being verified.

Which provinces and districts were most severely affected?

Three provinces bore the brunt of the disaster.

Kunar province suffered the most devastating losses, particularly in the remote mountain districts of Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi, and Chapadare—areas where traditional mud-and-stone construction proved completely inadequate against the seismic forces.

Nangarhar province, which contained the earthquake’s epicenter near Jalalabad, saw significant structural damage and hundreds of injuries but fewer deaths, possibly due to somewhat better construction standards in urban areas. Laghman province also experienced substantial damage and casualties. The tremors were felt across Afghanistan, including in Kabul, and even across the border in Islamabad, Pakistan.

What emergency response measures are currently underway?

A multi-layered response operation is in progress. Helicopter evacuations are airlifting the most critically injured from remote areas to hospitals in Jalalabad and Kabul, with pilots performing dozens of dangerous flights into improvised mountain landing zones.

Ground-based rescue teams—comprising Afghan security forces, local volunteers, and community members—continue searching collapsed structures for survivors, though the critical 72-hour window has passed in most areas. Local clinics and makeshift medical stations are treating injuries despite severe shortages of supplies and operating without reliable electricity.

International humanitarian organizations including the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, and various UN agencies have deployed emergency response teams and supplies, though distribution faces ongoing challenges due to terrain and infrastructure damage.

Community-level organizations and religious institutions are coordinating shelter, food distribution, and psychosocial support for survivors.

Why is Afghanistan so vulnerable to earthquakes?

Afghanistan’s vulnerability stems from both natural and human factors.

Geologically, the country sits in the Hindu Kush seismic zone where the Indian tectonic plate collides with the Eurasian plate—a process occurring at approximately 40-50 millimeters per year that has been ongoing for 50 million years.

This collision creates immense underground stress that periodically releases as earthquakes. The mountainous terrain amplifies damage through landslides that block roads and isolate communities.

Humanly, decades of conflict and economic hardship have left Afghanistan with virtually no enforced building codes, particularly in rural areas. Traditional construction methods use mud brick, stone, and timber in configurations that lack seismic resistance.

Homes built with these materials and methods simply cannot withstand the lateral forces generated by earthquakes, leading to catastrophic collapse rates far higher than would occur with earthquake-resistant construction.

How does this earthquake compare to previous Afghan earthquakes?

The August 31, 2025 earthquake ranks among Afghanistan’s deadliest seismic disasters in recent memory.

The June 2022 Paktika earthquake killed over 1,000 people with a 6.1 magnitude—similar in intensity to the 2025 event. The October 2023 Herat earthquakes killed approximately 1,500 people through a series of 6.3-magnitude tremors occurring days apart.

Looking further back, the 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake measured 7.5 magnitude and killed over 300 people across Afghanistan and Pakistan, while the 1998 Takhar earthquake claimed approximately 4,000 lives.

What distinguishes the 2025 event is its impact on particularly vulnerable remote communities and the compounding effect of Afghanistan’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, which has limited both preparedness and response capacity.

What long-term measures are needed to reduce future earthquake casualties?

Reducing future earthquake casualties requires a comprehensive, sustained approach across multiple areas. Immediate priorities include reconstructing destroyed infrastructure with seismic-resistant designs and clearing blocked mountain roads to ensure year-round access to remote communities.

Building code reforms and enforcement mechanisms must be established, even for rural construction, focusing on affordable earthquake-resistant techniques using locally available materials like reinforced mud brick with wooden bracing.

Community education programs teaching earthquake response, first aid, and disaster preparedness should be implemented nationwide, particularly in schools. Establishing seismic monitoring networks and mobile phone-based early warning systems could provide critical seconds of advance notice.

Healthcare infrastructure needs strengthening with earthquake-resistant hospital designs, backup power systems, and stockpiled emergency supplies. Perhaps most critically, sustained international support for disaster risk reduction—channeled through NGOs and UN agencies—is essential given Afghanistan’s limited internal capacity.

Regional cooperation with neighboring countries could improve cross-border response and share monitoring data. Without these systemic changes, Afghanistan will continue experiencing catastrophic casualties from earthquakes that cause minimal damage in countries with proper preparedness measures.