More than 800 people have been killed after an earthquake struck near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the ruling Taliban said.
The magnitude 6.0 quake was significant, but not huge — a tremor off Kamchatka, Russia, that triggered tsunami warnings in July released 15,000 times more energy. But rural Afghanistan’s homes are often made from mud and stone, and are easily damaged: Several villages were completely destroyed, officials said.
Afghanistan is already facing a major drought, and the UN told Sky News that the Taliban made it extremely difficult to mobilise resources, creating a “perfect storm” of devastation. A 2023 earthquake of comparable size killed more than 1,400 people, according to the World Health Organization.