Flash floods in Afghanistan kill more than 300 people as torrents of water and mud crash into villages | Afghanistan

More than 300 people were killed in flash floods that ravaged several provinces in Afghanistan, the UN World Food Program said, as authorities declared a state of emergency and rushed to rescue those wounded.

Many people remain missing after heavy rains on Friday triggered torrents of water and mud that poured through villages and farmlands in several provinces, causing what a humanitarian group described as a “major humanitarian emergency”.

Survivors fought their way through muddy, debris-strewn streets and damaged buildings on Saturday as authorities and non-governmental groups deployed rescuers and aid, warning that some areas had been cut off by flooding.

The northern province of Baghlan was one of the hardest hit, with more than 300 people killed and thousands of homes destroyed or damaged, according to the World Food Program.

“According to current information: in Baghlan province, there are 311 dead, 2,011 houses destroyed and 2,800 houses damaged,” said Rana Deraz, communications officer for the United Nations agency in Afghanistan.

There are disparities between death tolls provided by the government and humanitarian agencies.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration said on Saturday there had been 218 deaths in Baghlan. Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, told Agence France-Presse that 131 people had been killed in Baghlan, but the government toll could rise.

“Many people are still missing,” he added.

Another 20 people were reported killed in the northern province of Takhar and two in neighboring Badakhshan, he added.

Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter/X: “Hundreds of our citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods.”

He added: “The deluge caused extensive damage to residential properties, resulting in significant financial losses. »

Torrential rains caused heavy damage in Baghlan, Takhar and Badakhshan, as well as the western provinces of Ghor and Herat, officials said, in a country ravaged by poverty and heavily dependent on agriculture.

“My house and my whole life were washed away by the floods,” said Jan Mohammad Din Mohammad, a resident of Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province.

His family managed to flee to higher ground, but when the weather improved and they returned home, “there was nothing left, all my belongings and my house had been destroyed,” he said. declared.

“I don’t know where to take my family…I don’t know what to do.”

Emergency personnel were rushing to rescue injured and stranded Afghans. The air force said it had begun evacuation operations as the sky cleared on Saturday, adding that more than 100 injured people had been transferred to hospital.

“Announcing a state of emergency in the (affected) areas, the Ministry of National Defense has started distributing food, medicine and first aid to the affected people,” the statement said.

A vehicle loaded with food and water was seen in Baghlan-i-Markazi district of Baghlan, along with others carrying the dead for burial.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres “expresses his solidarity with the Afghan people (and) presents his condolences to the families of the victims,” said his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, adding that the UN was working with the authorities local authorities to provide assistance. .

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is also preparing a rapid response, adding that the floods should act as a “wake-up call” reminding world leaders and donors not to forget a country devastated by decades of conflict and beset by natural disasters.

“These latest floods have caused a major humanitarian emergency in Afghanistan, which is still reeling from a series of earthquakes” this year and severe flooding in March, said IRC country director Salma Ben Aissa .

Since mid-April, flash floods and other flooding have killed about 100 people in 10 Afghan provinces, authorities said.

Farmland has been flooded in a country where 80% of the more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive.

Afghanistan – which experienced a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the ground to absorb precipitation – is highly vulnerable to climate change.

This country, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the least prepared to face the consequences of global warming.

The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said on Twitter/X that the floods were “a stark reminder of Afghanistan’s vulnerability to the climate crisis.”

“Immediate assistance and long-term planning from the Taliban and international actors are needed. »