Death toll from Afghan earthquake jumps to more than 2,200 as aid agencies plead for funds

Source: AP

Updated 12:35 PM CDT, September 4, 2025

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds more bodies have been recovered from houses in mountain villages destroyed by a major earthquake in Afghanistan early this week, pushing the death toll to over 2,200, a Taliban government spokesman said Thursday.

The shallow, 6.0-magnitude quake struck the mountainous and remote eastern part of the country late Sunday, leveling villages and trapping people under rubble. Most of the casualties have been in Kunar province, where people typically live in wood and mud-brick houses along steep river valleys separated by high mountains.

Some 98% percent of the buildings in the province were damaged or destroyed, according to an assessment issued Thursday by the Islamic Relief charity. Aid agencies said they were sorely in need of staff and supplies to tend to the region’s survivors.

Muhammad Israel said the quake unleashed a landslide that buried his home, livestock, and belongings in Kunar. “All the rocks came down from the mountain,” he said. “I barely got my children out of there. ... The earthquake jolts are still happening. It is impossible to live there.”



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