A year after the 6.0-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people in eastern Afghanistan, families in Kunar’s Chawkay district remain in flimsy tents with little aid, food or income as colder weather approaches.
In the remote valleys of eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province, the scars of last year’s earthquake remain raw and visible. On a late August night in 2025, a magnitude 6.0 tremor, centred in Nurgal district at a shallow depth of about eight kilometres, tore through the mountainous terrain near the Pakistan border. It killed at least 2,217 people according to Taliban authorities, injured more than 4,000, and destroyed or damaged over 8,000 homes across Kunar, Nangarhar, Laghman and Nuristan provinces. Nearly half the dead were children. Entire villages were reduced to rubble. A year later, in places such as Masooda in Chawkay district, survivors are still living under canvas, their lives suspended between loss and the approaching winter.
Marwa stands outside the thin tent that has been home to her and her four children since the disaster. The family lost nearly everything when the ground shook and hillsides collapsed. Her children were injured. Rain now seeps through the fabric, soaking the few remaining belongings. “My children were injured. Now when it rains, the water comes into the tent,” she told Amu TV. “The rain has come inside and damaged our belongings. This is the tent, as you can see.” With no source of income and no regular assistance, Marwa faces the colder months with mounting fear.
Survivors Describe Vanishing Support and Daily Hardship
Three families in Chawkay district painted a consistent picture of abandonment after the initial emergency phase. In the first weeks after the quake, some help arrived. Then it largely stopped. Residents say they registered repeatedly for aid but received little or nothing beyond sporadic market purchases by the men of the household.
Amira, another survivor in Masooda, said her family needs cash and flour. “We have received no assistance,” she explained. “They register our names, but no one gives us anything. The men of the household bring whatever they can from the market, and we eat that.”
Askar Khan recalled the moment the hillside gave way: “Everything was shaking. God saved us and the children, but our belongings, bedding, wheat and corn were destroyed when the hillside collapsed.” Food stocks that families had relied on for months were buried or ruined, leaving many without a buffer against hunger.
The earthquake struck at 23:47 local time on 31 August 2025. Aftershocks, including a strong 5.6-magnitude event days later, compounded the destruction. Landslides blocked roads. Remote communities remained cut off for days. Rescue teams, including Afghan forces using helicopters, struggled through rugged terrain. International organisations and neighbouring countries sent tents, food and medical supplies in the early response. Yet long-term recovery has lagged.
Broader Humanitarian Crisis Deepens the Impact
Afghanistan was already facing overlapping emergencies when the quake hit. Economic collapse, restricted international assistance, large-scale returns of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran, and successive climate shocks had left millions dependent on aid. A UN expert warning on Afghan children highlighted irreversible harm from these crises combined with Taliban restrictions on women’s and girls’ education and mobility. Malnutrition rates remain high. In some assessments, three-quarters of the population struggle to meet basic needs.
Six months after the disaster, the Red Cross reported that more than 221,000 people in the eastern provinces still required urgent assistance. Save the Children noted that around 25,000 children were living in tents in Kunar, with many schools damaged or destroyed. A joint recovery needs assessment of estimated damages and losses in the region at tens of millions of dollars, with recovery costs higher still. Permanent shelter, livelihood restoration and winterisation have progressed slowly in the hardest-hit districts.
Fears Mount as Temperatures Drop
Now, a year later, as autumn turns toward winter, families in tents face new threats. Rain already invades their shelters. Colder nights will bring greater risks of illness, especially for children still recovering from injuries and living with limited food. Marwa has no income. Amira’s household depends on whatever can be scraped together from the market. Askar Khan lost the grain stores that once provided a measure of security.
Humanitarian partners have distributed emergency shelters, non-food items, cash assistance and health services in the months since the quake. Mobile teams have conducted medical consultations and psychosocial support. Yet survivors in Chawkay say the support that reached them in the early weeks largely dried up. Access challenges, funding shortfalls and the sheer scale of needs across Afghanistan have constrained sustained help. Reports of clinic closures and reduced international funding in the period leading up to and following the disaster underscored how stretched the response capacity already was.
Calls for Sustained Recovery Beyond Emergency Relief
The human cost of the 2025 Kunar earthquake extended beyond the immediate death toll. Livelihoods based on farming and livestock were disrupted. Schools and health facilities were damaged. Women and children, already facing severe restrictions and high rates of food insecurity, bore a heavy share of the suffering. UNICEF estimated that children accounted for roughly half of those killed. Thousands of families remain displaced or living in inadequate conditions a full year later.
Recovery efforts have included debris clearance, temporary shelter provision and some livelihood support. Organisations such as the Afghan Red Crescent Society, IOM and UN agencies have reached significant numbers of people. Yet the gap between emergency response and durable solutions remains wide. Permanent housing, reliable food assistance, income opportunities and protection from the elements are still out of reach for many in Chawkay and neighbouring districts.
In Masooda, the tents stand as daily reminders of unfinished recovery. Marwa watches over her four children inside a shelter that cannot keep out the rain. Amira waits for assistance that has not materialised despite repeated registrations. Askar Khan remembers the hillside that swallowed the family’s grain and bedding. With winter approaching, their message is simple and urgent: they need shelter that lasts, food that sustains, and support that does not disappear after the cameras leave.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Kunar earthquake, Chawkay district, earthquake survivors, humanitarian crisis, displacement, winter shelter, aid shortfall, Afghan children, natural disaster recovery,
