"We think potentially the impacted individuals would go up to almost into the hundreds of thousands," Indrika Ratwatte, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Kabul.
Already, more than 900 people are known to have been killed and thousands injured in the 6.0-magnitude earthquake, which hit remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan around midnight Sunday, followed by at least five aftershocks.
"The numbers are definitely going to increase," Ratwatte said, adding there was "no question that the casualty rate is going to be rather exponential".
The earthquake's epicentre was about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from the city of Jalalabad, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which said it struck around eight kilometres below the Earth's surface.
Such relatively shallow quakes can cause more damage, especially since the majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes vulnerable to collapse.
Ratwatte said homes in the affected region were largely "mud and wooden roof structures, so when the walls collapse the roof is what basically for the individuals kills them or suffocates them".
"It's a low (population) density, but since this happened in the night, everybody was sleeping so I think (the casualty figure) is going to be much higher."
He added that the quake had set off "lots of landslides, rockfalls, etc., and access has been very limited. This has posed a huge challenge".
"The biggest challenge is to reach these remote areas with the road access extremely damaged," he said, stressing the need for helicopters to reach those in need, evacuate the injured and deploy search and rescue and medical teams.
After decades of conflict, Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, facing a protracted humanitarian crisis and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran in recent years.
Ratwatte urged countries to show solidarity with the people of Afghanistan "facing multiple crises, multiple shocks".
He lamented that an appeal for $2.8 billion to provide desperately needed aid to Afghans this year was so far only 28-percent funded.
EU says sending aid after earthquake in Afghanistan
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Sept 2, 2025 -
The European Union said on Tuesday it was sending 130 tonnes of emergency supplies and unlocking one million euros to help victims of the deadly earthquake that hit Afghanistan.
More than 1,400 people are known to have been killed and thousands injured in the 6.0-magnitude earthquake, which hit remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan at around midnight on Sunday, followed by at least five aftershocks.
The United Nations has warned that the quake could impact "hundreds of thousands" and warned of an "exponential" rise in casualties.
The EU said that it was flying in the aid -- including tents, clothes and medical items -- on two special flights scheduled to arrive in Kabul this week.
The new aid comes on top of some 160 million euros ($185 million) in aid the EU has allocated to humanitarian organisations in Afghanistan this year.
After decades of conflict, Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world.
It faces a protracted humanitarian crisis and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran in recent years.
The EU has carefully calibrated its engagement with the country since the Taliban swept back into power in 2021 to avoid having too close ties to the authorities.
With aid slashed, Afghanistan's quake comes at 'very worst moment'
Kabul (AFP) Sept 2, 2025 -
Afghanistan was already facing severe crises when it was rocked by another devastating earthquake, but this time there are fewer resources to muster after foreign funding was slashed to the bone this year.
Less international aid "means fewer ambulances, fewer doctors, fewer nurses, fewer midwives" to send into the battered farming communities of Afghanistan's mountainous east, said Arthur Comon, deputy director of operations at the non-governmental group Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI).
The humanitarian sector has issued repeated calls since the start of the year for help in Afghanistan, which faces soaring poverty, worsening drought and the mass return of migrants expelled from neighbouring countries.
The 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck around midnight on Sunday killed more than 1,400 people and injured over 3,000, a toll that was still rising.
It hit "in the very worst moment", said Rahmat Nabi Shirzad, communications officer for the UK-based NGO Islamic Relief in Afghanistan.
"The impact of these global cuts to humanitarian aid is very clear," especially in health services for the hardest-hit province of Kunar, said Shirzad, who was also on the ground after deadly earthquakes in Herat province in 2023 and Paktika in 2022.
Compared to the support provided after those disasters, the resources for Kunar are "not at that level".
- 'Already bled dry' -
"This earthquake is a crisis within a crisis," United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan Indrika Ratwatte told AFP.
"Survivors now face overcrowded clinics, long waits and severe shortages of doctors and medicines -- just when emergency trauma care is needed most."
Funding cuts forced the closure of 400 health facilities, Ratwatte said.
The United States had been Afghanistan's main donor, providing $3.71 billion in aid since the Taliban takeover in 2021. It cut all but a sliver of funding in January.
"The Americans had put the country on a drip feed, and then pulled it out before the patient was healed," said a source at a French NGO.
"The earthquake is now ravaging a population that was already bled dry."
Beyond Washington, the UN said in June that it was drastically scaling back global humanitarian aid due to the "deepest funding cuts ever".
Afghanistan's aid had already been dwindling as donors hesitated, in part due to the Taliban's restrictions on women.
A senior official in the Taliban's information and culture ministry called on the international community to help.
"We are providing basic services... but the rehabilitation of those impacted and reconstruction of their homes is not in the capacity of the Islamic Emirate alone," said Atiqullah Azizi.
Half of Afghanistan's 48 million people are already in need of humanitarian aid, one in five goes hungry, and 3.5 million children under five are acutely malnourished, according to the UN.
The earthquake is "a key moment to see how donors react", International Rescue Committee's Vice President of Emergencies Bob Kitchen told AFP.
"What comes next will be very different -- we would ordinarily be already on the phone to US government colleagues," working to deploy funding for the earthquake response, he said.
- 'Lost interest in Afghanistan' -
PUI's Comon said it was "unlikely" that new funding would be secured for the post-earthquake response beyond perhaps only "small top-ups to cover the most urgent needs".
The French NGO, which closed 60 health centres and laid off 480 staff this year after the US cuts, has deployed mobile clinics in the quake-hit provinces but fears for the long term.
"It's been a long time since the general public lost interest in Afghanistan," the staff member said, adding that he hopes for aid from the European Union but expects little from the Americans, who are "completely out of the picture".
UN agencies have launched fundraising appeals, and an initial $5 million has been released from the emergency response fund.
But even before the earthquake, the UN estimated it had only $606 million available for its operations across Afghanistan out of the $2.79 billion required.
"With these cuts, we are being forced to make ever-tougher choices, concentrating scarce resources on those most vulnerable, while leaving many needs unmet," Ratwatte said.
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