At least 15 dead and hundreds more injured after quake hits Afghanistan

Mazar-i-Sharif: A powerful earthquake struck northern Afghanistan early Monday, killing at least 15 people, injuring hundreds of others and damaging one of the country’s most iconic landmarks in the latest natural disaster to batter the already ailing nation.

The 6.3 magnitude quake struck just before 1 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which is home to about 500,000 people and is known for its magnificent 15th-century Blue Mosque. The mosque’s tiles, parts of its walls and historical writings were destroyed in the quake, according to local officials and a video showing debris littering the grounds.

The earthquake adds yet another layer of hardship to Afghanistan, which has already been grappling with the severe impact of aid cuts, the return of more than 2 million Afghans from neighboring countries this year and the aftermath of an earthquake in the east that killed at least 2,200 people in August, according to authorities.

Tensions with neighboring Pakistan have also flared up in recent weeks, with an exchange of gunfire across the border and airstrikes carried out by the Pakistani military in Kabul and Kandahar, Afghanistan’s two largest cities.

A spokesperson for the Afghan Health Ministry, Sharafat Zaman, said that at least 15 people had died and that 320 others who were wounded had been transferred to hospitals. On Monday afternoon, about 20 injured people rested on beds at the regional hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif, some with heavy bandages around their limbs or heads stained with blood. Nakarulden, a farmer who goes by only his first name, said that he had been traveling back to Mazar-i-Sharif with fellow agricultural workers after a day spent in rice fields when the quake struck and a boulder fell on their car. He said that three men from his group had died.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense mentioned deaths and injuries in a social media statement but did not provide figures.

Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes because it lies at the convergence of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. The quake in August flattened villages in hard-to-reach mountainous areas and caused at least $183 million in damage, according to the World Bank — equivalent to about 1% of the country’s gross domestic product.

A previous earthquake in northern Afghanistan killed nearly 1,500 people in 2023, according to official figures.

Four years after the Taliban reclaimed power in Afghanistan, more than half of the country’s 42 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance. The country, isolated from much of the world except for a few neighbors, has been further strained by the recent return of more than 2 million Afghans who were either deported from or forced to leave neighboring Iran and Pakistan amid growing xenophobia and rising tensions between governments.

A sharp drop in foreign aid this year, driven by the Trump administration and European countries, has forced the closure of hundreds of health care facilities.

The latest quake hit the provinces of Samangan and Balkh in the north, near the border with Uzbekistan. In Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh, locals were clearing away debris from the grounds of the Blue Mosque on Monday. The mosque, a shrine to a central figure in the Shiite sect of Islam, is a pilgrimage site and a place of celebrations for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.