Rescuers struggle to reach Afghanistan flood-hit areas
Flash floods in northern Afghanistan sweep away livelihoods, leaving hundreds dead and missing; over 2,600 homes damaged or destroyed and 1,000 cattle killed, say officials
Emergency aid and rescue teams struggled on Sunday to reach areas of northern Afghanistan hardest hit by flash floods that killed hundreds, AFP journalists saw.
Heavy rains caused flash flooding in several provinces in Afghanistan on Friday.
Northern Baghlan was the worst impacted, with efforts to deliver aid hampered by destruction to roads and bridges wrought when the floods ripped through the province.
In Sheikh Jalal, about a two-hour drive from Burka, one of the most devastated areas, AFP journalists saw aid trucks full of food, military vehicles, rescue workers and local residents stuck where roads had been completely washed out.
The military was using heavy machinery to pave the way, as well as to free aid trucks stuck in the mud.
Mohammad Ali Aryanfar, part of a team from the Turkish Hak Humanitarian Relief Association trying to deliver food to Burka, said they had been on the road since early morning Sunday but were blocked in Sheikh Jalal.
“Our com patriots there( in burk a) need assistance and we pray that the road opens and we reach the area,” he told AFP.
“People’s houses have been destroyed and they don’t have anything, they don’t have shelters,” he added.
The united nations world food programme shared a photo on social media site X of Wfp-stamped bags of flour strapped to donkeys’ backs, saying it had to “resort to every alternative to get food to the survivors who lost everything” in Baghlan, as most of the affected areas were “inaccessible by trucks.” The Taliban government refugees ministry said on Sunday that 315 people had been killed and more than 1,600 people were injured in the flooding in Baghlan.
More than 2,600 homes have been damaged or destroyed and 1,000 cattle killed, it added.
Farm land has also been swamped in the poverty wracked nation where 80 percent of its more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive. WFP confirmed a toll of more than 300 dead in Baghlan to AFP on Saturday.
Taliban authorities and non-governmental groups warned that the death toll could rise.
About 600,000 people live in the five most severely impacted districts in Baghlan, according to NGO Save the Children.
So far this year, “nearly 13,000 people in Afghanistan have been impacted by disasters caused by extreme weather, including floods and landslides”, it said in a statement.
Shopkeeper Nazer Mohammad ran home as soon as he heard about flash floods crashing into the outskirts of a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. By the time he got there, there was nothing left, including his family of five, AP reported on Sunday.
“Everything happened just all of a sudden. I came home, but there was no home there, instead I saw all the neighborhood covered by mud and water,” said Mohammad. 48. He said that he buried his wife and two sons aged 15 and 8 years, but he’s still looking for two daughters, who are around 6 and 11 years old.
Mohammad said on Sunday that he found the bodies of his wife and two sons late on Friday night on the outskirt of Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province.
“I hope someone has found my daughters alive,” he said, holding back tears. “Just in the blink of an eye, I lost everything: family, home, belongings, now nothing is left to me.”
Among at least 240 people dead are 51 children, according to Unicef, one of several international aid groups that are sending relief teams, medicines, blankets and other supplies. The World Health Organisation said it delivered 7 tonnes of medicines and emergency kits.
Aid group save the children said about 600,000 people, half of them children, live in the five districts in Baghlan that have been severely impacted by the floods. The group said it sent a “clinic on wheels” with mobile health and child protection teams to support children and their families.
“Lives and livelihoods have been washed away,” said Arshad Malik, country director for Save the Children. “The flash floods tore through villages, sweeping away homes and killing livestock. Children have lost everything. Families who are still reeling from the economic impacts of three years of drought urgently need assistance.”