The situation
Around 13:40 local time (UTC +4:30) on 26 October 2015, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Badakhshan Province in the north-east region of Afghanistan. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the quake’s epicentre was 82 km southeast of Feyzabad in the Hindu Kush mountain range and 213 km in depth. The quakes impact was felt beyond Afghanistan as damages and casualties have been reported in the western part of Pakistan while minor damage occurred in India.
In Afghanistan, the earthquake has left a significant humanitarian impact, with at least 91 human lives lost and 425 people injured. There has been substantial damage to houses and property, mostly in the province of Badakhshan. So far, according to
Afghan Red Crescent (ARCS) data released on 1 November 2015, at least 5,457 houses have been confirmed damaged; 4,015 of them totally and 1,406 partially. The ARCS emergency operations centre (EOC) has collected information from 13 affected provinces that felt the most impact of the earthquake: Badakhshan, Baghlan, Kabul, Kapisa, Khost, Kunar, Laghman, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Paktya, Panjsher, Parwan and Takhar.
Some residents of the affected areas have described the earthquake as the worst to have hit that particular region of the country in the last 30 years.
Swathes of Badakhshan – the remote province where the epicentre was located – and other areas in the east and north-east of Afghanistan are yet to be fully covered by assessment teams because of access challenges.
As well as a difficult terrain and remoteness, access to some parts is constrained by the fact that the areas are controlled by non-state armed actors. As such, the number of casualties and damaged houses is likely to increase when ongoing assessments are completed and the full tally is obtained.