Compounding Crises in Afghanistan: Earthquake Survivors Face Winter While Internet Returns After Nationwide Blackout
Afghanistan is grappling with multiple severe crises simultaneously, as a devastating earthquake continues to leave tens of thousands without shelter ahead of winter, even as the country recovers from a sudden, nationwide communications blackout.
One month after a powerful magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is issuing an urgent warning that tens of thousands of families lack adequate shelter as winter rapidly approaches. The earthquake, which devastated Kunar, Nangarhar, Laghman, and Nuristan provinces, killed over 2,200 people and destroyed or damaged more than 8,000 homes.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), supported by the IFRC, has reached nearly 90,000 people with emergency aid, including cash assistance, shelter, and health care. However, the needs are immense, especially as freezing temperatures set in. Joy Singhal, IFRC Interim Head of Delegation, stressed that “tents are not enough” and that families require safe, warm, and dignified shelter to survive.
The IFRC Emergency Appeal for CHF 25 million is only 31 percent covered, jeopardizing crucial efforts to construct winter-ready shelters and implement longer-term recovery. ARCS Acting Secretary General Molavi Ruhullah Mohmand urged the international community to step up support to ensure no family spends the winter without a roof over their heads. The relief effort also faces challenges from concurrent crises, including recurrent flooding and widespread malnutrition.
Adding to the instability, communication networks across Afghanistan were completely blacked out for two full days, creating severe economic and humanitarian consequences before being restored.
The 48-hour total cut of fiber-optic internet and mobile phone networks—affecting major provinces including Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni, and Khost—ended early on Wednesday morning. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists confirmed that operator signals were back online, and Kabul citizens celebrated the return of the internet in the streets with honking car horns, according to eyewitnesses.
The official cause of the blackout remains unannounced, although some media, citing anonymous sources, reported that the order to restore connectivity came from Mullah Hassan Akhund, the Prime Minister in the Taliban administration. Previously, the Taliban had attributed the cut to damaged fiber optic cables. This full blackout follows recent restrictions on high-speed internet in some provinces, which had been ordered by Hibatullah Akhundzada under the pretext of “preventing corruption.”
The United Nations, in response to the blackout, had previously warned that Afghanistan was effectively cut off from the world and demanded the immediate restoration of internet access, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported. The permanence of the restored connection remains unclear.
