At least 31 people killed in flash floods in Afghanistan

At least 31 people have been killed, 74 left injured and 41 others missing in Afghanistan after flash floods hit parts of the country over the weekend, authorities said on Monday.

More than 600 residential houses have been partially or completely damaged in the flash floods triggered by heavy seasonal rain in seven provinces in the country, and hundreds of acres of agricultural lands have been affected, said Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Disaster Management.

“Teams of the ministry along with teams from the ministry of defence, ministry of public welfare, Red Crescent, provinces officials and other officials reached at the scenes of the floods and administered the rescue operations,” the spokesperson of the regime said in a press conference in Kabul.

A majority of the casualties were in west Kabul and Maidan Wardak, the spokesperson said.

Around 250 livestock perished in the floods, he said.

The highway stretching between Kabul and the central Bamiyan province was closed due to the floods, officials said.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Taliban’s Ministry of State for Disaster Management said nearly 10,000 families impacted by natural disasters in different provinces since the start of this year have been aided with food and cash.

Afghanistan has recorded 214 deaths in the past four months owing to natural disasters seen in the country, according to the ministry.

The floods come at a time Afghanistan is already reeling under multiple crises.

The internationally unrecognised hardline regime’s administration is not eligible for monetary help from international parties, deepening its financial woes further.

In April this year, the UN’s humanitarian affairs agency said the south Asian country is facing its third consecutive year of drought, its second year of severe economic hardship and the consequences of decades of war and natural disasters.