Heavy seasonal rains triggered flash floods across Afghanistan, killing at least 50 people in one province, leaving 100 others missing and displacing thousands more on Friday, officials said.
The toll from flooding in the northern province of Baghlan, which appeared to have suffered the worst devastation on Friday, is likely to rise, said Hedayatullah Hamdard, director of the provincial disaster management department. Most of the dead were women and children, he said.
Friday’s floods also killed at least one person in Badakhshan, a mountainous eastern province, where they destroyed houses, small dams and bridges and killed 2,000 head of livestock, the provincial water department said. disaster management.
Flooding also occurred in Ghor and Herat provinces in central and western Afghanistan, according to the Taliban government. Medics were also deployed to Parwan province, north of Kabul, said Hekmatullah Shamim, a spokesman for the provincial governor, although details of the flood toll were not immediately available.
Rescue teams have sent food, aid, medical teams and ambulances to affected areas in Baghlan province, said Health Ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman.
Pictures A report released by the government on Saturday shows roads in Baghlan submerged in muddy water, with people trying to move vehicles stuck in the mud.
In recent years, Afghanistan has experienced a disastrous situation economic crisisfaced a wave of natural disastersand dealt with turmoil of war and clashes with his neighbor, Pakistan.
This year’s wet conditions are due in part to El Niño phenomenon, increasing the risk of flooding, which hampers agricultural production and food supplies, particularly in the north and northeast of the country, the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. statement last week.
Flash floods from heavy rains inundated much of Afghanistan last month, killing more than 100 people, destroying more than 1,000 homes and destroying more than 60,000 acres of farmland, the organization said.
Damage to roads, bridges and electricity infrastructure could hamper the delivery of humanitarian aid, he added. The floods are also economically devastating in a country where at least 80 percent of the population earns their income from agriculture, according to the The United Nations.
“Any additional flooding will have a detrimental impact on large swaths of the population,” the International Rescue Committee said, “who are already reeling from economic collapse, high levels of malnutrition and conflict.”
