As many as 16 people, including women and children, have died in the recent floods in Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces of Afghanistan, TOLO News reported.

According to local officials in these provinces, 500 houses have been completely or partially destroyed in the floods. The local authorities have said that the floods have impacted Dand-e-Ghori, Doshi, the city of Pul-e-Khumri, the village of Morchak in central Badakhshan, and several other parts of these provinces, according to TOLO News report.

Taliban-appointed Baghlan Police Command chief Abdul Ghafoor Khadem said, “Last night, a very strong flood occurred. The major casualties we have are in the Larkhab area of Doshi district in Baghlan province. In Larkhab, approximately six people were martyred, including three children, one woman, and two men, and over 300 houses have been destroyed.”

Taliban-appointed head of the Natural Disaster Management in Badakhshan, Mohammad Kamgar said that ten members of one family and one other person was injured due to the floods, according to TOLO News report.

Meanwhile, several families who have lost all their belongings due to the floods have lambasted the delayed arrival of aid. The families called for immediate assistance from the Taliban-led government and aid agencies.

Hizbullah, a flood victim, said, “The flood took nine members of my family. We found two bodies, but the others are still missing,” TOLO News reported. Another flood victim Ziaullah said, “Our request is that as we are among the affected, whatever is allocated to any part of Afghanistan, do not forget us.”

More than 300 people have died over the past week in the devastating floods in several parts of Afghanistan. The floods have destroyed hundreds of residential houses and ruined thousands of acres of agricultural land.

After heavy floods hit several regions of Afghanistan, the World Food Programme on May 12 announced that most flood-affected areas are inaccessible by vehicles, including trucks, reported Khaama Press. The organisation shared a picture showing aid workers, transferring emergency supplies to Baghlan using donkeys.

“Flood Update: Most of the affected areas in Baghlan, #Afghanistan is inaccessible by trucks. WFP had to resort to every alternative to get food to the survivors who lost everything,” the UNWFP posted on X.

The WFP posted on X about the lack of easy access for flood victims in Baghlan, reported Khaama Press. The organisation had stated, “The World Food Programme had to resort to any alternative to deliver food to survivors who have lost everything.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kabul:

Fresh floods killed 66 people in northern Afghanistan, a provincial official said Sunday, after weeks of flooding that has inundated farms and villages and swept away swathes of communities.

Hundreds of people have died in flash floods this month that have also swamped agricultural lands in a country where 80 percent of the population depends on farming to survive.

The latest heavy floods hit multiple districts of Faryab province on Saturday night and “resulted in human and financial losses,” said Asmatullah Muradi, spokesman for the Faryab governor, in a statement.

“Due to the floods 66 people were killed,” he said, adding that at least five people were injured and others were still missing.

The flooding damaged more than 1,500 houses, swamped more than 1,000 acres of agricultural land and killed hundreds of livestock, he said.

The floods came a day after provincial police said more than 50 people were killed in flash flooding in the western province of Ghor.

Just over a week ago, more than 300 people were killed by torrents in northern Baghlan province, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Taliban officials.

Taliban officials have warned the death counts would go up in regions impacted by flooding, as destroyed infrastructure hampered aid delivery and efforts to find the missing.

The death count from the Ghor flooding rose from 50 to 55 on Sunday, according to Abdul Wahid Hamas, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

“More than 3,000 homes were totally destroyed due to the floods” in Ghor, he added.

Videos shared on social media platform X by the WFP showed currents of brown water crashing through walls of homes and churning through streets in Ghor.

‘Washed away our life’

Residents in Baghlan, Ghor, Faryab and other affected provinces found themselves without shelter, stripped of their homes and livelihoods.

“We were inside our home when rain started and all of a sudden, a flash flood came, we were trying to get things out but it washed away our home, our life, everything,” Ghor resident Jawan Gul told AFP on Saturday.

The flooding also sparked concern for the revered 12th-century Jam minaret, located in a remote part of Ghor, provincial officials said.

Images circulated to media showed brown torrents crashing around the base of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“The situation of Jam was very concerning,” Abdul Hai Zaeem, information and culture director in Ghor, told AFP, adding that mud was still piled high around the brick minaret.

The WFP warned that the recent floods have compounded an already dire humanitarian situation in the impoverished country.

Spring floods are not uncommon in Afghanistan, a country of more than 40 million people, but above-average rainfall this year has sparked devastating flash flooding.

Even before the most recent spate of floods, about 100 people had been killed from mid-April to early May as a result of flooding in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, authorities said.

The rains come after a prolonged drought in Afghanistan, which is one of the least prepared nations to tackle climate change impacts, according to experts.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kabul:

Flash floods that have ripped through northern Afghanistan left more than 200 people dead in a single province, the United Nations said on Saturday.

More than 200 people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged in Baghlan province when heavy rains on Friday sparked massive flooding, the UN’s International Organization for Migration told AFP.

In Baghlani Jadid district alone, up to 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed and “more than 100 people died”, an IOM emergency response lead said, citing figures from the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority.

Taliban government officials said 62 people had died as of Friday night. 

Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said “hundreds of our fellow citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods” in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, without differentiating the numbers of dead and injured, though he told AFP dozens had been killed.

Multiple provinces across Afghanistan saw flash flooding, with officials in northern Takhar province reporting 20 dead on Saturday.

Rains on Friday also caused heavy damage in northeastern Badakhshan province, central Ghor province and western Herat, officials said.

Emergency personnel have been deployed to the affected areas and were rushing to rescue injured and stranded people, the defence ministry said. 

Afghanistan — which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall — is highly vulnerable to climate change.

The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)