More than 800 people were killed and at least a thousand injured after the earthquake struck the east of the country just before midnight local time on Sunday.
The extensive building damage will force many to leave their homes, potentially exacerbating volatile population movement in recent years, experts said.
Nearly two million people have returned from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran this year alone, after those governments launched forced “repatriation” plans and deportation programmes.
Afghan men search for their belongings amidst the rubble of a collapsed house after the earthquake, in Dara Mazar, Kunar province (Photo: Reuters)
Islamic Relief, an international humanitarian organisation which has deployed emergency health specialists to the area, said that the disaster was “looking increasingly horrific” and extensive building damage meant that “displacement is now a major concern”.
Ibrahim Ahmed Alhomadi, the organisation’s head of programmes in Afghanistan, said the quake had “wiped out entire villages” and that families had “fled in panic to try and find safety.”
“The affected areas are remote, rural and mountainous, and landslides and floods make it even harder to reach them. These are poor villages and many of the homes are made from mud or flimsy materials that completely collapsed.”
The remote location of affected villages means many people have not been given medical assistance (Photo: Reuters)
In the week prior to the earthquake, nearly 26,000 people returned to Afghanistan from countries including Pakistan and Iran, UN figures show.
Jeremy Smith, Afghanistan country manager at the British Red Cross, which is responding to the crisis, said that further displacement could complicate recovery efforts.
“With recent returns from Pakistan already placing pressure on local services, there is a real risk that further displacement, especially from rural to urban areas, could strain infrastructure and deepen existing vulnerabilities.”
A village damaged by the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province (Photo: Wahidullah Kakar/AP)“This is because the people most affected are likely to be poor and may not have the means to move further away,” she said.
Around 37,000 Afghans have been resettled in the UK under a British government scheme since 2021, while thousands have arrived on small boats.
A house destroyed by the earthquake in Mazar Dara, Kunar province (Photo: Wahidullah Kakar/AP)Global aid cuts have forced health facilities and nutrition centres to close, and services in the country are overwhelmed by the massive influx of returnees, the organisation said.
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“Global funding cuts have dramatically hampered our ability to respond to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan,” she said.
“The needs from this earthquake will be immense and long-lasting, spanning healthcare, shelter, and economic recovery and development.
“Following decades of conflict, climate change and humanitarian crises, the earthquake adds another layer of suffering to the already vulnerable people of Afghanistan.”
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