Global Courant
Severe flooding caused by seasonal rains in Afghanistan over the past three days has killed at least 31 people and left dozens missing.
Shafiullah Rahimi, the Taliban spokesman for the natural disaster management ministry, said on Sunday that at least 74 others were injured and 41 people were missing after flash floods hit the capital Kabul and Maidan Wardak and Ghazni provinces.
He said most of the casualties were in western Kabul and in the Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak. Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said emergency aid was being delivered to the two main disaster areas.
The provincial governor’s office said in a statement that hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and those missing are believed to be under the rubble of collapsed homes.
The statement also said crops had been destroyed on hundreds of square kilometers of farmland and the highway between Kabul and central Bamiyan province had been closed due to the flooding.
Although Afghanistan lies at the western edge of the Asian monsoon footprint, flash floods occur frequently in summer as heavy rains flow down dry riverbeds.
The floods add to the misery of the people of Afghanistan. In April, the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Organization said the South Asian country is facing a third consecutive year of drought, its second year of severe economic hardship and the effects of decades of war and natural disasters.
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