Death Toll In Afghanistan Flash Flood Reaches 30, Several Others Are Missing

(Photo : Pexels/Kafeel Ahmed)

A flash flood in Afghanistan has killed at least 37 people and left dozens more missing.

According to a DW report, heavy rain triggered flooding, which washed away or damaged hundreds of houses, most of them built of earth.

The floodwaters rose while many people were sleeping in the central province of Maidan Wardak.

Ministry of Disaster Management spokesman Mohammad Shafi Rahimi said that 26 deaths occurred in Jalrez District, located 46 kilometers east of Kabul. In Kabul, at least four people died.

"Teams of the ministry along with teams from the ministry of defense, ministry of public welfare, Red Crescent, provinces officials and other officials reached at the scenes of the floods and administered the rescue operations," he said.

Authorities also reported 74 injured people and at least 41 were missing.

Taliban seeks aid

Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid urged assistance organizations and the Kabul authorities to assist the bereaved families.

According to a CNN report, at least 606 houses sustained damage or were completely destroyed in seven provinces, and the rescue teams were busy conducting search and rescue operations.

A total of 250 livestock also perished in the floods, while hundreds of square miles of agricultural land were reported damaged.

The highway between Kabul and the central Bamiyan province was closed due to the floods.

The flooding adds more suffering to Afghanistan's already dire situation.

In April, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs said the country was experiencing its third straight year of drought, its second year of severe economic hardship, and the legacy of decades of war and natural calamities.

Over the past four months, at least 214 people have been killed due to natural disasters in Afghanistan.

According to a South China Morning Post report, natural catastrophes impact 200,000 Afghans on average each year.

In 2022, unprecedented monsoon floods temporarily swamped a third of the country, killing over 1,700 people.

The Ministry of State for Disaster Management said that nearly 100,000 families have been affected and have been given food and cash aid since the start of the year.

Landslide in Pakistan

As the monsoon season continued to impact regions of Pakistan on Sunday, 13 people were killed and seven were injured as a result of heavy rainfall and landslides.

Nine people died in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while four family members died when a massive landslide hit their car in the Skardu area of the Gilgit Baltistan region.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms damaged at least 74 houses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to Taimur Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management office.

Aljazeera reported that the provincial government declared an emergency in the Chitral district after heavy rains caused flash floods in the mountainous terrain.

Since the monsoon began, 133 people have died due to weather-related incidents in Pakistan.

Heavy rains have flooded three major rivers in eastern Punjab province, the Jhelum, Sutlej, and Chenab, causing the disaster management agency to issue an alert for further flash floods, which have already caused damage to at least 15,000 people in the last three weeks.