After a Catastrophic Earthquake in Afghanistan, Direct Relief Commits $50,000, Prepares Emergency Medical Shipment

More than 1,400 people have been killed by an earthquake that reverberated through eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 31. The 6.0-magnitude quake also injured more than 3,300 people, many of them in Kunar and Nangarhar Provinces. The number of both deaths and injuries is expected to rise, with emergency response efforts still underway and large areas still unsearched. A second, smaller earthquake of magnitude 5.2 struck eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday morning.

In response to this disaster, Direct Relief has committed an initial $50,000 in emergency grant funding to enable emergency responders in the country to deploy mobile medical teams and provide services to those injured or displaced.

Direct Relief is also preparing an emergency order of material medical support for the Afghanistan AMOR Health Organization, or AAHO, which operates Afshar Hospital in Kabul. AAHO has a long and effective history of work in Afghanistan, where it has operated both the hospital and five clinics since 2008, providing vital primary, maternal health, specialty, surgical, and other healthcare to vulnerable Afghan people. The organization is dispatching mobile health units to care for those injured, displaced, and otherwise affected by the earthquakes.

Despite challenges that complicate aid deliveries into Afghanistan, Direct Relief has maintained a successful humanitarian conduit into the country, allowing for material medical aid, valued at more than $460,000, to reach Afshar Hospital in the past year. The most recent shipment was dispatched two weeks ago, in late August.

Earthquakes are common across Afghanistan and frequently cause extremely high death tolls, even in more sparsely populated areas. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake in October 2023, in western Afghanistan, killed more than 1,400 people, and a quake of magnitude 5.9 in the eastern area of the country killed more than 1,000. The country's high level of seismic activity and frequent use of monolithic building structures, which can collapse when shaken, make earthquakes particularly dangerous.

Sunday's earthquake occurred in the middle of the night, when most people were asleep, exacerbating the high death toll. Many of the most affected villages are in remote and hard-to-access areas, slowing rescue and response efforts.

In addition, health in Afghanistan remains extremely vulnerable. High levels of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition combine with a lack of available medical care, high out-of-pocket costs, and humanitarian aid cuts that severely affect Afghan people of all ages. More than 420 health facilities have reportedly closed across the country, with an estimated 80 of them in the earthquake-affected region.

Direct Relief will continue to monitor the earthquake's aftermath and response, and assess medical needs as they emerge.