Taliban says 5.1 earthquake jolts northeastern Afghanistan

A 5.1 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday jolted the Afghan city of Faizabad, the capital city of northeastern Badakhshan province, a Taliban official said.

Abdul Wahid Rayan, the director of the Taliban news agency Bakhtar, said the centre of the quake was Shaghnan district and it was felt in other parts of the province.

He had no information on any casualties or damage caused by the quake, but local media reported it was felt around 350 kilometers away in northern Balkh province.

In June, a powerful earthquake ignited another crisis in the struggling country, underscoring the Taliban’s limited capabilities and isolation. United Nations officials said at the time that 770 people were killed, while the Taliban put the death toll at 1,150.

Overstretched aid groups already keeping millions of Afghans alive rushed supplies to victims of the June quake, but most countries responded tepidly to the Taliban’s calls for international help.

The international cutoff of Afghanistan’s financing has deepened the country’s economic collapse and fuelled its humanitarian crises.