Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in eastern Afghanistan have concluded a five-week emergency response to the earthquake that shook Khost and Paktika provinces on June 21, 2022. The last MSF team left Paktika’s remote Bermal district on July 28, 2022, as other medical organizations arrived to continue providing care. Medical care in Bermal is limited, so MSF set up a temporary clinic to provided trauma care and other medical care to the community affected by the earthquake. In five weeks, MSF teams treated more than 1,380 patients.

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake killed more than 1,000 people, injured more than 2,000 people, and destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes. Khost’s Spera district and Paktika’s Gayan and Bermal districts were the worst affected. On June 23, MSF sent emergency response teams from Kabul and Khost to the region to assess the medical needs and donate tents and medical equipment.