ISLAMABAD (AP) — Flash floods caused by heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province have killed at least 50 people, a Taliban official said Saturday, adding that the death toll was based on preliminary reports and could rise .
Dozens of other people remain missing, said Abdul Wahid Hamas, spokesman for the governor of Ghor province.
He also said the province suffered significant financial losses after thousands of homes and properties were damaged and hundreds of hectares of farmland destroyed following Friday’s floods, including in the capital Feroz Koh.
Last week, the UN food agency said the exceptionally heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan they killed more than 300 people and destroyed thousands of homes, particularly in the northern province of Baghlan, which bore the brunt of the May 10 floods.
Survivors were left without a home, land and source of livelihood, the World Food Organization said. Most of Baghlan is “inaccessible to trucks,” the WFP said, adding that it is using every alternative it can think of to deliver food to survivors.
The latest disaster came on the heels of devastating floods that killed at least 70 people in April. The waters also destroyed around 2,000 homes, three mosques and four schools in western Farah and Herat, and in southern Zabul and Kandahar provinces.
