A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on 25th April 2015. Its epicentre (the point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of the quake) was around 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of the capital, Kathmandu. The quake brought buildings crashing down in many towns, villages and cities in the area—including Kathmandu. By mid-May, when a second quake occurred, around 9000 people were reported killed, with the more than 19,000 injured. Many tens of thousands were left homeless. On Mount Everest, the quake triggered an avalanche that killed at least 24 people and left 140 climbers temporarily stranded. They were all later evacuated safely.

Many survivors were left in desperate need of food and water. The United Nations said that more than 1.4 million people required food aid, including 750,000 who live near the quake’s epicentre. Relief teams from neighbouring China and India quickly brought aid, including medical teams, food, medicines, rescue equipment, sniffer dogs, tents, blankets and generators to the area. Many people in remote areas of Nepal, where some villages were almost totally destroyed, remained cut off days after the event, reachable only by helicopter.

Hundreds of thousands of people were given shelter in temporary camps, but conditions were squalid, with very little food and drinking water, raising fears of serious disease breaking out. At Kathmandu's Bir hospital, every bed was filled and the road outside was being used as a makeshift emergency ward. The survivors’ despair turned to anger at the Nepalese government’s slow response and with food, water and other essentials still in short supply weeks afterwards.

In Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, thousands of people queued for buses to take them out of the city, amid fears of further aftershocks. But the roads were choked with vehicles and relief convoys. Kathmandu airport found it hard to cope with the additional rush of people desperate for flights out, as well as the arrival of cargo aircraft bringing in relief supplies.

Nepal is no stranger to earthquakes. The Himalaya mountains, in which Nepal is situated, were formed by the Indian tectonic plate driving under the Eurasian tectonic plate. These two great slabs of the Earth's outer shell are being forced together at a rate of about 4–5 centimetres (2–3 inches) a year. The tectonic movements are constantly accompanied by tremors and quakes.