Kabul: The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan at the weekend rose sharply to more than 2,200 on Thursday, according to reports.
“Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from destroyed houses during search and rescue operations,” deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat wrote on X on Thursday, announcing the new toll, adding that “rescue efforts are still ongoing.”
Aid agencies on Wednesday urged the international community to increase funding to Afghanistan.
Just a few countries have publicly committed money since Sunday night’s 6.0-magnitude quake struck several provinces in the mountainous and remote east, levelling villages and trapping people under rubble.
It’s the latest crisis to beset the country, and the third strong quake since the Taliban seized power in 2021.
The United Kingdom is giving 1 million pounds (USD 1.3 million) to help. This money will go to aid organisations and not the Taliban government, which the UK doesn’t recognise. South Korea on Wednesday said that it would provide USD 1 million through the United Nations.
Australia on Thursday pledged USD 1 million and said it worked with established partners to ensure its support helped those in need and not the Taliban government.
A further USD 11 million is being released through funds overseen by the UN and the European Union, while development agencies are channelling money through nongovernmental organisations or charities.
But many traditional donor countries have yet to come forward with financial assistance. The US was once the largest humanitarian funder to Afghanistan until it gutted this support earlier this year.
“Afghans are weary of this never-ending crisis upon crisis, which they have to meet with dwindling external help and their own often desperate efforts,” said Thamindri De Silva, national director of World Vision Afghanistan.
“International governments are queasy about investing in the longer-term solutions that can address the drivers of crises, such as the lack of preparedness, rural health care, and fragile infrastructure that made the impacts of these earthquakes so devastating.”
World Vision has launched a private fundraising campaign, De Silva added.
Some governments and ambassadors have pledged assistance in kind to Afghanistan. India is sending tents and food. The United Arab Emirates dispatched a rescue team and essential relief supplies.
Taliban authorities have appealed for international help despite restricting and, in some cases, interfering with the work of NGOs.
International funding to Afghanistan has fallen dramatically since the Taliban takeover, and just 28 per cent of the humanitarian funding target has been met this year.
Local resources were stretched to breaking point, and the lack of money was limiting the scale and speed of the response to the quake, said Jacopo Caridi, the country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Rescue teams have struggled to reach affected communities in Kunar, the worst-affected province, hampered by rockfalls and landslides. Some are walking for hours to deliver aid and medicine, often up steep hills. People from surrounding areas have rushed in to help.
“The earthquake is not a stand-alone disaster,” Caridi said. “It hit communities that were already struggling with displacement, food insecurity, drought, and the return of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees from neighbouring countries. Our teams in Kunar report that families are sleeping in the open, enduring repeated aftershocks.”
On Wednesday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that more than 25 square kilometres of land was contaminated by mines and explosive ordnance in earthquake-affected areas because of years of conflict.