A powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan late Saturday night, killing more than 550 people and injuring more than 1,000, according to preliminary reports. Entire villages in remote mountain provinces were reduced to rubble, underscoring once again the country’s deep vulnerability to natural disasters.

The quake, which struck at 11:47 p.m. local time in Nangarhar Province, had a shallow depth of roughly 8 to 10 kilometers. Its tremors were felt across the border in Pakistan. The hardest-hit areas included Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman Provinces, where landslides and rockfalls cut off roads, leaving rescue teams struggling to reach isolated communities.

Homes collapsed, families were buried beneath debris, and survivors were forced into the open night air. Many mountain villages, built from mud and stone, stood little chance against the violent tremors.

Hospitals quickly filled with the wounded. In Nangarhar, the regional specialty hospital overflowed with patients, many of them women and children. Ambulances ferried the injured to neighboring districts, but the sheer number of casualties pushed the health system beyond capacity. Critical shortages of trauma supplies and blood donations have already been reported.

The Afghan Red Crescent Society dispatched emergency teams for aerial and ground assessments, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) began coordinating international support. European humanitarian teams from ECHO, the EU’s civil protection agency, are also deploying to Jalalabad to assist with mapping and needs assessments.

The IFRC said immediate priorities include search-and-rescue operations, emergency medical aid, and the provision of food and clean water. With roads blocked by landslides, restoring access has become a race against time. Officials are weighing whether to activate the IFRC’s emergency disaster fund to accelerate relief efforts.

Afghanistan, already battered by conflict, economic hardship and past natural disasters, has few resources to confront such crises. For many communities, survival now depends on the speed and scale of international aid.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder that when disaster strikes, no one is an outsider,” an IFRC official said, urging swift global assistance to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs.

Reference: IFRC GO