Aid agencies on Wednesday urged the international community to increase funding to Afghanistan after a major earthquake killed at least 1,400 people and injured thousands more.
Just a few countries have publicly committed money since Sunday night’s 6.0-magnitude quake struck several provinces in the mountainous and remote east, leveling villages and trapping people under rubble.
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Afghans injured in a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, lie on beds at Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
A man tries to clear rubble of a collapsed house after a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing many people and destroying villages, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
A man collects belongings from the rubble of a collapsed house after a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing many people and destroying villages, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Displaced Afghan families gather under trees with their belongings after a powerful earthquake destroyed their homes in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Afghans injured during a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan Sunday, are treated at Nangarhar Regional hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.(AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
A woman and her children, survivors of Sunday night's 6.0-magnitude earthquake, wait for assistance in the village of Wadir, Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
A military helicopter takes off carrying injured survivors of Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake in a damaged village of Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
A village lies in rubble after Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck several provinces, in a remote valley in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
Villagers, survivors of Sunday night's 6.0-magnitude earthquake, wait for assistance in the village of Wadir, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
Residents from surrounding towns and villages climb as they try to reach the quake-hit region to assist survivors after Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck several provinces, in the Nurgol district, Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
It’s the latest crisis to beset the country, and the third strong quake since the Taliban seized power in 2021.
The United Kingdom is giving 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) to help. This money will go to aid organizations and not the Taliban government, which the U.K. doesn't recognize. South Korea on Wednesday said that it would provide $1 million through the United Nations.
Australia on Thursday pledged $1 million and said it worked with established partners to ensure its support helped those in need and not the Taliban government.
A further $11 million is being released through funds overseen by the U.N. and the European Union, while development agencies are channeling money through nongovernmental organizations or charities.
But many traditional donor countries have yet to come forward with financial assistance. The U.S. was once the largest humanitarian funder to Afghanistan until it gutted this support earlier this year.
“Afghans are weary of this never-ending crisis upon crisis, which they have to meet with dwindling external help and their own often desperate efforts,” said Thamindri De Silva, national director of World Vision Afghanistan.
“International governments are queasy about investing in the longer-term solutions that can address the drivers of crises, such as the lack of preparedness, rural health care, and fragile infrastructure that made the impacts of these earthquakes so devastating.”
World Vision has launched a private fundraising campaign, De Silva added.
Some governments and ambassadors have pledged assistance in kind to Afghanistan. India is sending tents and food. The United Arab Emirates dispatched a rescue team and essential relief supplies.
Taliban authorities have appealed for international help despite restricting and, in some cases, interfering with the work of NGOs.
International funding to Afghanistan has fallen dramatically since the Taliban takeover, and just 28% of the humanitarian funding target has been met this year.
Local resources were stretched to breaking point, and the lack of money was limiting the scale and speed of the response to the quake, said Jacopo Caridi, the country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Rescue teams have struggled to reach affected communities in Kunar, the worst-affected province, hampered by rockfalls and landslides. Some are walking for hours to deliver aid and medicine, often up steep hills. People from surrounding areas have rushed in to help.
“The earthquake is not a stand-alone disaster,” Caridi said. “It hit communities that were already struggling with displacement, food insecurity, drought, and the return of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees from neighboring countries. Our teams in Kunar report that families are sleeping in the open, enduring repeated aftershocks.”
On Wednesday, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that more than 25 square kilometers (around 10 square miles) of land was contaminated by mines and explosive ordnance in earthquake-affected areas because of years of conflict.
He said that assessments of the quake’s impact and response efforts have been “very challenging” because of blocked roads, but the distribution of food and shelter materials and health assistance has started. The priorities are shelter, medical supplies, drinking water, food and sanitation.
“The needs remain immense, and we call on all those who are able to provide support for the earthquake response to do so,” he added.
Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.
Afghans injured in a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, lie on beds at Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
A man tries to clear rubble of a collapsed house after a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing many people and destroying villages, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
A man collects belongings from the rubble of a collapsed house after a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing many people and destroying villages, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Displaced Afghan families gather under trees with their belongings after a powerful earthquake destroyed their homes in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Afghans injured during a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan Sunday, are treated at Nangarhar Regional hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.(AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
A woman and her children, survivors of Sunday night's 6.0-magnitude earthquake, wait for assistance in the village of Wadir, Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
A military helicopter takes off carrying injured survivors of Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake in a damaged village of Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
A village lies in rubble after Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck several provinces, in a remote valley in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
Villagers, survivors of Sunday night's 6.0-magnitude earthquake, wait for assistance in the village of Wadir, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
Residents from surrounding towns and villages climb as they try to reach the quake-hit region to assist survivors after Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck several provinces, in the Nurgol district, Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss Iran's deadly protests at the request of the United States, even as President Donald Trump left unclear what actions he would take against the Islamic state.
Tehran appeared to make conciliatory statements in an effort to defuse the situation after Trump threatened to take action to stop further killing of protesters, including the execution of anyone detained in Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.
Iran’s crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,615, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. The death toll exceeds any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The sound of gunfire faded Thursday in the capital, Tehran. The country closed its airspace to commercial flights for hours without explanation early Thursday and some personnel at a key U.S. military base in Qatar were advised to evacuate. The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait also ordered its personnel to “temporary halt” travel to the multiple military bases in the small Gulf Arab country.
Here is the latest:
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group, said on Thursday that “criminal gangs” were responsible for the situation in Iran, accusing them of carrying out an “American-Israeli” scheme.
“Criminal gangs in Iran killed Iranian citizens, security forces and burned mosques,” he said without providing evidence. “What’s being committed by criminal gangs in Iran is horrific, bearing an American stamp as it includes slaughter and burning some people alive.”
He also said that the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Iran to create a crisis leading to the current issues in the country with the end goal of controlling Iran.
Yet he said the U.S. has “failed in Iran” and that Iranians “will not yield to America.”
The president of the European Union’s executive arm says the 27-member bloc is looking to strengthen sanctions against Iran as ordinary Iranians continue their protests against Iran’s theocratic government.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday following a meeting of the EU’s commissioners in Limassol, Cyprus that current sanctions against Iran are “weakening the regime.”
Von der Leyen said that the EU is looking to sanction individual Iranians —apart from those who belong to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard — who “are responsible for the atrocities.”
She added that the people of Iran who are “bravely fighting for a change” have the EU’s “full political support.”
Canada’s foreign minister says a Canadian citizen has died in Iran “at the hands of the Iranian authorities.”
“Peaceful protests by the Iranian people — asking that their voices be heard in the face of the Iranian regime’s repression and ongoing human rights violations — has led the regime to flagrantly disregard human life,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand posted on social media Thursday.
“This violence must end. Canada condemns and calls for an immediate end to the Iranian regime’s violence,” she added.
Anand said consular officials are in contact with the victim’s family in Canada. She did not provide details.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced Thursday that a local staff member was killed and several others were wounded during the deadly protests in Iran over the weekend.
Amir Ali Latifi, an Iranian Red Crescent Society worker, was working in the country’s Gillan province on Jan. 10 when he was killed “in the line of duty,” the organization said in a statement.
“The IFRC is deeply concerned about the consequences of the ongoing unrest on the people of Iran and is closely monitoring the situation in coordination with the Iranian Red Crescent Society,” the statement continued.
U.S. President Donald Trump has hailed as “good news” reports that the death sentence has been lifted for an Iranian shopkeeper arrested in a violent crackdown on protests.
Relatives of 26-year-old Erfan Soltani had said he faced imminent execution.
Trump posed Thursday on his Truth Social site: “FoxNews: ‘Iranian protester will no longer be sentenced to death after President Trump’s warnings. Likewise others.’ This is good news. Hopefully, it will continue!”
Iranian state media denied Soltani had been condemned to death. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital. Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.
Trump sent tensions soaring this week by pledging that “help is on its way” to Iranian protesters and urging them to continue demonstrating against authorities in the Islamic Republic.
On Wednesday Trump signaled a possible de-escalation, saying he had been told that “the killing in Iran is stopping.”
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union’s main foreign policy chief said the G7 members were “gravely concerned” by the developments surrounding the protests, and that they “strongly oppose the intensification of the Iranian authorities’ brutal repression of the Iranian people.”
The statement, published on the EU’s website Thursday, said the G7 were “deeply alarmed at the high level of reported deaths and injuries” and condemned “the deliberate use of violence” by Iranian security forces against protesters.
The G7 members “remain prepared to impose additional restrictive measures if Iran continues to crack down on protests and dissent in violation of international human rights obligations,” the statement said.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has spoken with his counterpart in Iran, who said the situation was “now stable,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Abbas Araghchi said “he hoped China will play a greater role in regional peace and stability” during the talks, according to the statement from the ministry.
“China opposes imposing its will on other countries, and opposes a return to the ‘law of the jungle’,” Wang said.
“China believes that the Iranian government and people will unite, overcome difficulties, maintain national stability, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests,” he added. “China hopes all parties will cherish peace, exercise restraint, and resolve differences through dialogue. China is willing to play a constructive role in this regard.”
“We are against military intervention in Iran,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told journalists in Istanbul on Thursday. “Iran must address its own internal problems… They must address their problems with the region and in global terms through diplomacy so that certain structural problems that cause economic problems can be addressed.”
Ankara and Tehran enjoy warm relations despite often holding divergent interests in the region.
Fidan said the unrest in Iran was rooted in economic conditions caused by sanctions, rather than ideological opposition to the government.
Iranians have been largely absent from an annual pilgrimage to Baghdad, Iraq, to commemorate the death of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, one of the twelve Shiite imams.
Many Iranian pilgrims typically make the journey every year for the annual religious rituals.
Streets across Baghdad were crowded with pilgrims Thursday. Most had arrived on foot from central and southern provinces of Iraq, heading toward the shrine of Imam al-Kadhim in the Kadhimiya district in northern Baghdad,
Adel Zaidan, who owns a hotel near the shrine, said the number of Iranian visitors this year compared to previous years was very small. Other residents agreed.
“This visit is different from previous ones. It lacks the large numbers of Iranian pilgrims, especially in terms of providing food and accommodation,” said Haider Al-Obaidi.
Europe’s largest airline group said Thursday it would halt night flights to and from Tel Aviv and Jordan's capital Amman for five days, citing security concerns as fears grow that unrest in Iran could spiral into wider regional violence.
Lufthansa — which operates Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings — said flights would run only during daytime hours from Thursday through Monday “due to the current situation in the Middle East.” It said the change would ensure its staff — which includes unionized cabin crews and pilots -- would not be required to stay overnight in the region.
The airline group also said its planes would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace, key corridors for air travel between the Middle East and Asia.
Iran closed its airspace to commercial flights for several hours early Thursday without explanation.
A spokesperson for Israel’s Airport Authority, which oversees Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, said the airport was operating as usual.
Iranian state media has denied claims that a young man arrested during Iran’s recent protests was condemned to death. The statement from Iran’s judicial authorities on Thursday contradicted what it said were “opposition media abroad” which claimed the young man had been quickly sentenced to death during a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in the country.
State television didn’t immediately give any details beyond his name, Erfan Soltani. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital. Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Thursday that his government was “appalled by the escalation of violence and repression” in Iran.
“We condemn the brutal crackdown being carried out by Iran’s security forces, including the killing of protesters,” Peters posted on X.
“Iranians have the right to peaceful protest, freedom of expression, and access to information – and that right is currently being brutally repressed,” he said.
Peters said his government had expressed serious concerns to the Iranian Embassy in Wellington.
Women cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A demonstrator lights a cigarette with a burning poster depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of Iran's anti-government protests, in Holon, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
