Earthquake kills at least 20 people in northern Afghanistan

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has killed at least 20 people, striking northern Afghanistan near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The Ministry of Public Health reported the death toll on Monday, raising the estimate as search efforts began. A further 320 people are reported to have been injured.

The disaster adds to the list of deadly quakes to hit the country since the Taliban retook power in 2021, testing its capacity to govern as foreign aid dwindles. Just two months ago, an earthquake in the east killed more than 2,000 people.

Monday’s quake struck at 12:59am (20:29 GMT on Sunday) at a depth of 28km (17 miles) near Mazar-i-Sharif, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman stressed to journalists that the death toll of 20 was only preliminary.

The USGS issued an orange alert on its PAGER system, which is an automated system that produces information on the impact of earthquakes, and indicated that “significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread”.

Past events with this alert level have required a regional- or national-level response, the alert added.

The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority said reports on casualties and damage would be shared later.

The earthquake destroyed part of the Blue Mosque of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh province spokesperson Haji Zaid said.

In the provincial capital of about 523,000 people, many residents ran into the streets in the middle of the night, fearing their homes might collapse, an AFP news agency correspondent reported.

Samira Sayed Rahman of Save the Children said aftershocks have been felt across the country, especially in the north.

“In Kabul, it felt incredibly strong. It was one of the strongest earthquakes I have felt,” she told Al Jazeera from the Afghan capital, adding that the building she was in shook for several seconds.

“It is hard to overstate how frightening this is, especially for children. After the devastation in the east from the August earthquake, we now have another part of the country that is devastated.”

The quake is the latest natural disaster for the Taliban government, which has faced three major deadly earthquakes since retaking control of the country in 2021 as the foreign aid that formed the backbone of the country’s economy has dramatically dropped.

A shallow magnitude 6 quake, the deadliest in recent Afghan history, struck on August 31 in the east, killing more than 2,200 people.

Large earthquakes in western Herat near the Iranian border in 2023 and in the eastern province of Nangarhar in 2022 killed hundreds of people and destroyed thousands of homes.

Earthquakes are common in the country, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.

Afghanistan is contending with multiple crises after decades of war: endemic poverty, severe drought and the influx of millions of Afghan refugees forced back home by neighbouring Pakistan and Iran.

Many modest Afghan homes are shoddily built, and poor infrastructure hampers rescue efforts after natural disasters like earthquakes.

Since 1900, northeastern Afghanistan has been hit by 12 earthquakes with a magnitude above 7, according to Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey.