Ten Deadliest Quakes of the 21st Century

A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)
A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)
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Ten Deadliest Quakes of the 21st Century

A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)
A picture taken with a drone shows a general view over an area with many collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, 13 February 2023. (EPA)

The massive earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria on February 6 is the fifth-deadliest this century.

Here is a list of the 10 worst quakes since 2000, ranked by death toll:

2004: 230,000 dead, southeast Asia

On December 26, a massive 9.1-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that kills more than 230,000 people throughout the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia alone.

Waves 30 meters (100 feet) high, travelling at 700 kilometers per hour (435 miles per hour), swallow everything in their path.

2010: 200,000 dead, Haiti

A magnitude 7 quake on January 12 devastates the capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region.

The quake cuts the country off from the rest of the world for 24 hours, killing over 200,000 people, leaving 1.5 million homeless and shattering much of Haiti's frail infrastructure.

In October the same year, Haiti is also hit by a cholera epidemic introduced by Nepalese peacekeepers who arrived after the quake. It kills more than 10,000 people.

2008: 87,000 dead, Sichuan

More than 87,000 people, including 5,335 school pupils, are left dead or missing when a 7.9-magnitude quake strikes southwestern Sichuan province on May 12.

The quake causes outrage after it emerges that 7,000 schools were badly damaged, triggering accusations of shoddy construction, corner-cutting and possible corruption, especially as many other buildings nearby held firm.

2005: 73,000 dead, Kashmir

An October 8 earthquake kills more than 73,000 people, the vast majority in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and the Pakistani-administered zone of Kashmir.

A further 3.5 million are displaced.

2023: 35,000 dead, Türkiye and Syria

On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude quake strikes near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

The biggest quake in Türkiye in nearly a century, which is followed by a 7.5 magnitude tremor, reduces entire neighborhoods of cities in southeastern Türkiye and the north of war-ravaged Syria to rubble.

On February 13, the toll hits 35,224.

2003: 31,000 dead, Bam (Iran)

A 6.6-magnitude quake in southeastern Iran on December 26 destroys the ancient mud-brick city of Bam, killing at least 31,000 people.

Nearly 80 percent of Bam's infrastructure is damaged and the desert citadel, once considered the world's largest adobe building, crumbles.

2001: 20,000 dead, India

A massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake on January 26 hits the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing more than 20,000 people.

The quake flattens buildings across the state, with many fatalities in the town of Bhuj near the border with Pakistan.

2011: 18,500 dead, Japan

On March 11, Japan is struck by an enormous 9.0-magnitude earthquake, unleashing a towering tsunami.

Around 18,500 people are left dead or missing as the wall of water travelling at the speed of a jet plane levels communities along the northeastern coast.

The ensuing meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant blankets nearby areas with radiation, rendering some towns uninhabitable for years and displacing tens of thousands of residents.

2015: 9,000 dead, Nepal

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake on April 25 strikes in central Nepal, triggering avalanches and landslides across the Himalayan nation, destroying schools and hospitals.

The quake kills almost 9,000 people and renders millions homeless. It also reduces more than a hundred monuments to rubble, including centuries-old temples and royal palaces in the Kathmandu valley.

2006: 6,000 dead, Java

On May 26, a 6.3-magnitude quake rocks the southern coast of the Indonesian island of Java, near the city of Yogyakarta, killing around 6,000 people.

More than 420,000 are left homeless and around 157,000 houses are destroyed.



Expelled S.Africa Envoy to US Back Home 'With No Regrets'

Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
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Expelled S.Africa Envoy to US Back Home 'With No Regrets'

Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
Expelled South Africa Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool speaks to supporters following his arrival at Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

The South African ambassador who was expelled from the United States in a row with President Donald Trump's government arrived home on Sunday to a raucous welcome and struck a defiant tone over the decision.

Ties between Washington and Pretoria have slumped since Trump cut financial aid to South Africa over what he alleges is its anti-white land policy, its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other foreign policy clashes.

"It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets," expelled ambassador Ebrahim Rasool said in Cape Town after he was ousted from Washington on accusations of being "a race-baiting politician" who hates Trump.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week Rasool was expelled after he described Trump's Make America Great Again movement as a supremacist reaction to diversity in the United States.

Rasool was greeted with cheers and applause from hundreds of placard-waving supporters mostly clad in the green and yellow of the ruling African National Congress party at Cape Town International Airport, AFP reported.

"I want to say that we would have liked to come back with a welcome like this if we could report to you that we had turned away the lies of a white genocide in South Africa, but we did not succeed in America with that," he said with a megaphone after a more than 30-hour trip via Qatari capital Doha.

The former anti-apartheid campaigner defended his remarks about Trump's policies, saying he had intended to analyze a political phenomenon and warn South Africans that the "old way of doing business with the US was not going to work".

"Our language must change not only to transactionality but also a language that can penetrate a group that has clearly identified a fringe white community in South Africa as their constituency," he said.

"The fact that what I said caught the attention of the president and the secretary of state and moved them enough to declare me persona non grata says that the message went to the highest office," he added.