At least 50 people have been killed due to severe rains and flooding in Afghanistan's Ghor province.

 

At least 50 people have been killed and thousands of homes destroyed after a new bout of heavy rains and flooding hit central Afghanistan, authorities confirmed. 

For weeks, torrential seasonal rains have caused flash floods that have devastated vast areas of Afghanistan, resulting in hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, and widespread destruction of homes and communities. In Ghor province alone, at least 50 people have died, according to police spokesman Abdul Rahman Badri, who also warned that the death toll is expected to rise.

“These terrible floods have also killed thousands of cattle and destroyed hundreds of hectares of agricultural land, numerous bridges and culverts, and thousands of trees,” he said.

Preliminary reports indicate that dozens of people are missing, according to Abdul Wahid Hamas, spokesman for Ghor’s provincial governor. 

Mawlawi Abdul Hai Zaeem, head of the information department for Ghor, reported that the latest rains began on Friday, cutting off many key roads. In the provincial capital, Firoz Koh, 2,000 houses were completely destroyed, 4,000 partially damaged, and more than 2,000 shops were submerged. 

Last week, the Taliban’s Ministry for Refugees reported that the death toll from flooding in northern Afghanistan had reached 315, with more than 1,600 people injured. Afghanistan, highly prone to natural disasters, is considered by the United Nations as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

On Wednesday, an Afghan Air Force helicopter crashed due to “technical issues” while attempting to recover the bodies of people who had fallen into a river in Ghor. The crash resulted in one death and 12 injuries, according to the Ministry of Defence.

People displaced by earlier floods are facing a severe lack of humanitarian aid. Survivors have been left without homes, land, or means of livelihood, as reported by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

The WFP also noted that most of Baghlan, the worst-hit province in the north, remains “inaccessible by trucks.”  

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