Funding cuts to Afghanistan obstruct earthquake response

Source: Reuters

September 1, 2025 11:01 AM EDT Updated 9 hours ago


KABUL, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The shrinking of funding for Afghanistan, led by U.S. aid cuts, was hampering the response on Monday to a powerful earthquake in the east, with dozens of clinics closed and a helicopter out of use, humanitarian officials said.

The magnitude 6 tremor hit overnight, levelling villages, killing at least 800 people and injuring more than 2,800 in remote mountainside areas. The ruling Taliban administration and aid officials have a daunting task to rescue and help thousands of Afghans with a tinier budget than ever and an economy in crisis.

"The actual delivery of response has been badly hit by the funding cuts this year, but also the number of people we have on the ground is much less than we would have had six months ago," said Kate Carey, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan.

It was the third major deadly earthquake since the Taliban took over in 2021 in a nation also reeling from conflict, droughts, floods and the push-back of 2.1 million Afghans by neighbouring countries. Afghanistan has been badly affected since U.S. President Donald Trump's administration in January began funding cuts to its humanitarian arm USAID and aid programs worldwide in what he casts as part of a broader plan to remove wasteful spending.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/funding-cuts-afghanistan-obstruct-earthquake-response-2025-09-01/