Afghanistan Quake Leaves Villages in Ruins; Mother Forced to Leave Children Behind

By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

KABUL (Worthy News) – Afghan families are forced to make impossible choices after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, devastating the mountainous Kunar province, where entire villages collapsed.

Samira Sayed Rahman, program director of aid group Save the Children, had just returned from the disaster zone following the late-Sunday quake when she spoke from her home in Kabul. “It is one of the areas hit hardest,” she said. “You are overwhelmed by what you see: village after village where no building is left standing.”

Blocked roads, landslides, and rubble have made much of the rugged terrain nearly impassable. “We cannot get enough supplies to the affected people,” Rahman explained. “To reach certain places, you have to cross mountains and rivers. That sometimes means a three-hour walk. Even helicopters cannot get everywhere.”

As a result, survivors are often forced to abandon their communities to reach aid stations. “One mother had to leave five of her children in the rubble, not knowing if they were still alive, to try to save her other four children,” Rahman recalled.

Aftershocks every twenty minutes deepen the trauma, leaving many too afraid to seek shelter in damaged buildings. “People are traumatized and sleep outside in the rain,” Rahman said. She added that tents, food, water, and medical help are urgently needed.

HOSPITALS OVERWHELMED

Hospitals in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kunar are overwhelmed. “They were already overstretched before the earthquake,” Rahman stressed. More than 400 medical facilities have closed in recent years due to dwindling international aid, including cuts in U.S. programs under President Donald J. Trump, aid workers say.

Amid these struggles, the Red Cross appealed for $28 million “to help 150,000 survivors over the next two years.”

Taliban authorities said Wednesday that about 1,400 people were killed, more than 3,000 injured, and nearly 7,000 homes destroyed, though Rahman warned the death toll could rise as the crucial “72-hour rescue window” to find survivors has passed.

The quake has added to concerns about the country’s tiny Christian minority, which advocacy groups say already faces persecution under the strict Islamic Taliban rulers and may struggle to access aid and protection.

Christian converts—estimated to number in the low thousands—are especially vulnerable under Taliban rule, Worthy News documented.

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