Fresh floods in Afghanistan kill at least 50 after heavy rain brings devastation

At least 50 people were killed in a fresh bout of heavy rain and flooding in central Afghanistan, according to an official.

Dozens others remain missing, said Abdul Wahid Hamas, spokesperson for Ghor’s provincial governor, on Saturday. He said the province had suffered significant financial losses with thousands of homes and properties damaged and hundreds of hectares of agricultural land destroyed in the floods on Friday, including in the province’s capital city, Feroz Koh.

Last week hundreds of people were killed across the country after heavy rains sparked flash flooding, killing 315 people and injuring more than 1,600.

Rescue and aid workers have been struggling to reach some of the worst-affected areas with the World Health Organization echoing Taliban government and NGO warnings that the death toll could rise significantly. Throughout the week, survivors of flooding searched for the missing after torrents of water ripped through villages.

A helicopter used by the Afghan air force crashed on Wednesday owing to “technical issues” during attempts to recover the bodies of people who had fallen into a river in Ghor province, killing one and injuring 12 people, the country’s defence ministry said.

Survivors have been left with no home, no land, and no source of livelihood, the World Food Organization said. Most of Baghlan is “inaccessible by trucks”, said WFP, adding that it was resorting to every alternative it could think of to deliver food to the survivors.

Afghanistan is prone to natural disasters and the United Nations considers it one of countries most vulnerable to climate change. It has battled a shortfall in aid after the Taliban took over as foreign forces withdrew from the country in 2021, since development aid that formed the backbone of government finances was slashed.

In a country with a health system already on its knees, some health facilities were rendered non-operational by the flooding last week, which damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and swamped agricultural land.

The WHO has warned of rising cases of water-borne diseases in flood-affected regions.

Source: The Guardian and news agencies