Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) has warned that hundreds of homes in Kabul are at risk of evacuation after part of Chehel Sotoun Hill in the city’s District 7 showed signs of a potentially dangerous landslide.
Mohammad Yousuf Hamad, spokesman for ANDMA, said authorities had completed an initial assessment of the hillside and identified approximately 300 homes in the surrounding area as being vulnerable to landslides and falling rocks. He said preparations are underway to relocate families living in the highest-risk zones to safer locations.
Officials said inspectors discovered widening cracks near the historic Chehel Sotoun monument overlooking southern Kabul. The authority warned that rainfall or additional ground movement could trigger further instability, increasing the risk to densely populated neighborhoods built along the hillside.
Akhtar Mohammad, head of ANDMA’s Disaster Risk Reduction Department in Kabul, said preliminary investigations indicate that unregulated excavation and stone extraction on the slopes have weakened the mountain’s stability. According to the official, some residents had been removing rock for construction materials without engineering oversight, contributing to erosion and structural damage.
Chehel Sotoun is one of Kabul’s oldest residential areas, where many houses have been constructed on steep hillsides over several decades, often without modern geotechnical standards or retaining infrastructure. Urban planners and geologists have repeatedly warned that informal hillside construction has increased landslide risks in several parts of the capital.
Environmental expert Najibullah Sadid called for an immediate halt to stone extraction around Chehel Sotoun and urged authorities to conduct detailed geological surveys before the next rainy season. He said preventive engineering measures are needed to stabilize the slope and reduce the risk of a large-scale collapse.
International organizations have previously identified landslides as one of Afghanistan’s most persistent natural hazards, particularly in mountainous urban areas where rapid population growth has pushed residential construction onto unstable terrain. Kabul has experienced repeated incidents of rockfalls and hillside collapses in recent years, especially during periods of heavy rain and snowmelt.
