Several provinces in Afghanistan suffered flash floods
Kabul:
Flash floods that hit northern Afghanistan left more than 200 people dead in a single province, the United Nations said on Saturday.
More than 200 people died and thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged in Baghlan province when heavy rains on Friday caused massive flooding, the UN’s International Organization for Migration told AFP.
In Baghlani Jadid district alone, around 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed and “more than 100 people died,” said an IOM emergency response leader, citing figures from Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Taliban government officials said 62 people had died as of Friday night.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said “hundreds of our fellow citizens succumbed to these calamitous floods” in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, without differentiating the number of dead and injured, although he told AFP that dozens were killed.
Several provinces in Afghanistan have suffered flash floods, with authorities in the northern province of Takhar reporting 20 deaths on Saturday.
Friday’s rains also caused extensive damage in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, central Ghor province and western Herat, officials said.
Emergency teams were sent to affected areas and rushed to rescue injured and trapped people, the Defense Ministry said.
Afghanistan – which had a relatively dry winter, making it harder for the soil to absorb rain – is highly vulnerable to climate change.
The nation, devastated by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the least prepared to face the consequences of global warming.
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