The remains of flood-damaged homes are pictured in Firozkoh, the capital of Afghanistan's Ghor province on May 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
stringer | Reuters
Floods caused by heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 68 people in Afghanistan, Taliban officials said on Saturday, adding that the death toll was based on preliminary reports.
Afghanistan is witnessing unusually heavy monsoon rains.
Abdel Wahed Hamas, spokesman for the regional governor, said that 50 people were killed in the Ghor region in the west of the country, which was severely affected. He also said the province suffered major financial losses after thousands of homes and properties were damaged and hundreds of hectares of farmland were destroyed following Friday's floods, including in the capital, Firoz Koh.
Meanwhile, 18 people were killed in northern Faryab province and two others were injured on Friday, according to Esmatullah Moradi, spokesman for the province's governor. He added that property and land damage was reported in four areas and more than 300 animals died.
The United Nations Food Agency posted on the social media platform X, saying that Ghor state was the most affected by the floods, with 2,500 families affected. The post said WFP assessment teams were on the ground to provide assistance.
The Taliban government's chief spokesman mourned “the loss of our Afghan brothers” and urged “the responsible authorities… to provide all necessary support to alleviate the suffering,” in a post on the X website. He also called on “philanthropic donors” to provide the necessary assistance. And humanitarian organizations to provide aid to affected communities.
Last week, the World Food Program said that exceptionally heavy rains in Afghanistan had killed more than 300 people and destroyed thousands of homes, most of them in the northern Baghlan province, which bore the brunt of the May 10 floods.
The World Food Organization said the survivors were left without shelter, land or a source of livelihood. The World Food Program said that most of Baghlan's areas are “inaccessible by trucks,” adding that it is resorting to every alternative it can think of to deliver food to survivors.
The latest disaster follows devastating floods that killed at least 70 people in April. The waters also destroyed about 2,000 homes, three mosques and four schools in western Farah and Herat and the southern provinces of Zabul and Kandahar.
