UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed profound grief over the loss of lives and property as a result of devastating floods in Pakistan.Spokesman for the Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric, in a statement, said the disaster – caused by a severe monsoon exacerbated by climate change – has affected some 1.5 million people and left hundreds of thousands of people in need of humanitarian aid. He said more than 3,000 homes, over 400 schools and some 40 health facilities have been damaged.

The Secretary-General commends Pakistani authorities for relocating more than one million people in Punjab.

He expresses his solidarity with the Government and people of Pakistan, extends his heartfelt condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives, and wishes a swift recovery to those who have been injured.

The United Nations and its partners are working closely with Pakistani authorities to rapidly assess the humanitarian impact of the floods, identify needs and address gaps in the response to the disaster.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has released 600,000 dollars from the Regional Humanitarian Pooled Fund to support relief and recovery efforts, and discussions are underway with the Government on a response plan.

• At least 2,205 killed, 3,640 injured in Afghanistan quakes.
• Another 12 killed in Nangarhar and Laghman.
• “Rescue efforts still ongoing”, says deputy spokesperson.

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 a new toll, making it the deadliest in decades to hit the country.

The vast majority of those killed in the magnitude-6.0 earthquake that jolted the mountainous region bordering Pakistan late on Sunday were in Kunar province, where 2,205 people died and 3,640 were injured, according to a Taliban government toll.

Another 12 people were killed and hundreds injured in the neighbouring provinces of Nangarhar and Laghman. The toll had been expected to rise as volunteers and rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble.

“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”.

Limited access to the hardest hit areas of mountainous Kunar province has delayed rescue and relief efforts, with rockfalls from repeated aftershocks obstructing already precarious roads etched onto the side of cliffs.

Various countries have flown in aid, but hundreds of villagers in the hard-hit Nurgal district were still stranded in the open air, squeezing multiple families under pieces of tarp pulled from the rubble and unsure of where they would get a morsel to eat.

A fight broke out over food when some finally reached the field in Mazar Dara where hundreds of people were camped out, little aid having reached them.

“Yesterday, some people brought some food, everyone flooded on them, people are starving, we haven´t had anything to eat for a long time,” Zahir Khan Safi, 48, told AFP.

‘Every hour counts’

Poor infrastructure in the impoverished country, still fragile from four decades of war, has also stymied the emergency response.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that local healthcare services were “under immense strain”, with shortages of trauma supplies, medicines and staff.

The agency has appealed for $4 million to deliver lifesaving health interventions and expand mobile health services and supply distribution.

“Every hour counts,” said WHO emergency team lead in Afghanistan Jamshed Tanoli. “Hospitals are struggling, families are grieving and survivors have lost everything.”

The loss of US foreign aid to the country in January this year has exacerbated the rapid depletion of emergency stockpiles and logistical resources.

NGOs and the UN have warned that the earthquake creates a crisis within a crisis, with cash-strapped Afghanistan already contending with overlapping humanitarian disasters.

Filippo Grandi, head of the UN’s refugee agency, said the quake had “affected more than 500,000 people” in eastern Afghanistan.

The country is contending with endemic poverty, severe drought, and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover.

Even as Afghanistan reeled from its latest disaster, Pakistan began a new push to expel Afghans, with more than 6,300 people crossing the Torkham border point in quake-hit Nangarhar province on Tuesday. 

• Pakistan targets 1.3 million PoR holders for deportation crackdown.
• Thousands cross Chaman and Torkham daily, fearing arrest.
• Grandi stresses urgent aid for Afghanistan, calls donor support vital.

ISLAMABAD: The UN refugee chief has urged Pakistan to pause its mass expulsions of Afghan refugees after a devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed nearly 1,500 people.

“Given the circumstances, I appeal to the Government of Pakistan to pause the implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,” Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said on X. He warned that those being forced out are “returning to a disaster zone”.

His appeal came as rescue teams continued struggling to reach survivors after the shallow, magnitude-6.0 quake struck the mountainous region bordering Pakistan late Sunday, collapsing mud-brick homes as families slept. 

Taliban government authorities said 1,469 people were killed and more than 3,700 injured, with over 500,000 people affected — one of the country’s deadliest quakes in decades.

Pakistan has hosted Afghans fleeing violence for more than four decades, from the Soviet invasion to the 2021 Taliban takeover. Some refugees were born and raised there, while others have been awaiting relocation to third countries. Various cohorts of Afghans have found differing degrees of stability, including access to work and education.

However, Islamabad, citing a rise in militant attacks and insurgent campaigns, launched a crackdown in 2023 to evict Afghans, describing the population as “terrorists and criminals”. More than 1.2 million Afghans have since been forced to return, including over 443,000 this year alone, according to the United Nations.

The campaign has most recently targeted an estimated 1.3 million refugees holding UNHCR-issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, with a September 1 deadline set for them to leave or face arrest and deportation. 

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday the agency was “preparing for significantly more returns in the coming days” due to the deadline.

Border officials report a sharp rise in crossings since the deadline expired. At the Chaman crossing, more than 4,000 people have left, according to local administrator Habib Bangulzai. In Spin Boldak on the Afghan side, migrant registration official Abdul Latif Hakimi said 250 to 300 families are returning daily since August 31.

At the Torkham crossing further north, more than 6,300 PoR holders returned on Tuesday alone, with nearly 63,000 PoR cardholders recorded entering Afghanistan since April. UNHCR data shows a surge in crossings between 24 and 30 August, with 25,490 returnees, including 13,525 PoR holders.

Analysts say the evictions are designed to pressure Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, which Pakistan accuses of sheltering militants behind a rise in border attacks. The Taliban denies the allegations.

Grandi said aid from donors, including Pakistan, remains “vital and welcome” as Afghanistan grapples with the aftermath of the quake.