More than 900 people have died in the earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, where relief efforts continue as medical workers try to help and comfort those who have lost everything.

Measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale and followed by at least five strong aftershocks, the earthquake struck remote areas in the mountainous provinces of Nangarhar, Kounar and Laghman in the middle of the night from Sunday to Monday.

Nearly all of the victims were reported in Kunar province, Mohammed Hamad, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Authority, told AFP. Around ten deaths were reported in the neighboring province of Nangarhar.

According to him, the death toll, which also reports more than 3,000 injured, could rise further. Searches continue in villages reduced to piles of rubble.

"We need help," pleaded 14-year-old Akhlaq from his hospital bed in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar. At the time of the earthquake, there were ten people living in the family home.

"Two of my brothers, my uncle and two of my nephews are dead, the other four members of my family are now homeless and have no food or water," he told AFP.

In Geneva, Indrika Ratwatte, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, warned that "potentially, the number of people affected could reach almost hundreds of thousands."

"Duty to help"

According to the head of the Kunar Disaster Management Authority, Ehsanullah Ehsan, "the search has not stopped" and this "thanks to the mobilization of our employees and residents from surrounding districts."

"The priority is to help the injured, then we will distribute tents and hot meals to the homeless," he told AFP, as relief efforts are still struggling to reach some villages cut off by landslides.

In fact, for more than 36 hours, dozens of residents of the villages of Wadir and Mazar Dara, on the green hillsides of Kounar, have been clearing away what remains of the collapsed houses with shovels or by hand.

Oubadullah Stouman rushed to Wadir from his village on the border with Pakistan, further east, to get news of his relatives.

"People here are poor, it's our duty to help them," the 26-year-old Afghan told AFP. He himself was abruptly woken by the earthquake, but his village was not affected.

In Wadir, however, "there are only stones left, I don't even know how to describe it, it's very, very hard to see," he says, his throat tight.

All around, after funeral prayers, rows of bodies, sometimes children, wrapped in a white shroud according to Muslim rite, are buried.

International aid

Military helicopters continue their ballet towards the disaster areas, delivering aid and evacuating the dead and wounded.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located 27 km from Jalalabad, only eight kilometers deep, which explains the heavy death toll and the extent of the damage.

Afghanistan, whose Taliban authorities are recognized only by Moscow, is one of the poorest countries in the world.

UN agencies have all launched appeals for donations, and an initial $5 million has been released from the UN's global emergency response fund.

London, for its part, announced that it was releasing one million pounds to help support affected families.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Since 1900, the northeast of the country has experienced 12 earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 7, according to Brian Baptie, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey.

After returning to power in 2021, the Taliban faced the deadliest earthquake in 25 years: in 2023, in the Herat region, at the other end of Afghanistan, on the border with Iran, more than 1,500 people were killed and more than 63,000 homes destroyed.