KABUL/GENEVA — Afghanistan’s search for life amid devastation grew desperate on Wednesday as commandos were airdropped into shattered mountain villages, where entire families lay buried beneath rubble from earthquakes that have already claimed more than 1,400 lives, reported by Dawn News.
The back-to-back tremors, including a 6.0-magnitude quake, left swaths of eastern provinces in ruins, their fragile stone-and-timber homes collapsing like sandcastles after heavy rains softened the ground. Survivors clawed through debris with bare hands and crude tools, carrying bodies on woven stretchers and digging graves with pickaxes. “Entire households are gone,” one aid worker said of Kunar province, where the majority of deaths were recorded.
But the catastrophe struck just as Afghanistan faces another crisis: mass deportations of its people from neighboring Pakistan. Since 2023, more than 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return, including 443,000 this year. At the Chaman and Torkham border crossings, thousands continue to stream back daily, many to villages that now lie in ruins.
On Wednesday, the United Nations refugee chief urged Pakistan to pause expulsions in the wake of the disaster, warning that the forced returns compound the suffering of a country already on its knees. Reports from returning families describe raids, harassment, and extortion in the days leading up to the latest deportation deadline.
The humanitarian strain is mounting. The World Food Programme cautioned that its emergency stocks will run out within four weeks without fresh funding. “Four weeks is just not enough even to meet basic needs,” said John Aylieff, WFP’s country director.
For now, rescuers race against time. Helicopters hover above valleys where they cannot land, dropping elite soldiers to carry survivors down treacherous slopes. Aftershocks continue to send rocks crashing into already-isolated hamlets, forcing families to sleep in the open, fearful their damaged homes will collapse again.
The toll stands at 1,457 dead, 3,394 injured, and more than 6,700 homes destroyed — and officials warn the numbers will rise as rescuers dig deeper into the wreckage.
