ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.N. food agency reported on Saturday that flash floods caused by abnormally heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan have killed over 300 people and destroyed over 1,000 homes.
According to the World Food Program, those who survived one of the numerous floods that have affected Afghanistan in recent weeks—mostly the northern province of Baghlan, which was hardest hit on Friday—were receiving fortified biscuits.
According to state-run media, the floods in the neighboring province of Takhar killed at least twenty people.
Numerous people gathered Saturday behind the Baghlan hospital in search of their loved ones, as seen in videos shared on social media. They are informed by an official that while their employees are busy getting the bodies ready for burial, they should begin digging graves.
On the social media site X, Zabihullah Mujahid, the principal spokesperson for the Taliban government, wrote that “hundreds… have succumbed to these calamitous floods, while a substantial number have sustained injuries.”
The worst affected provinces, according to Mujahid, are Badakhshan, Baghlan, Ghor, and Herat. “The extensive devastation” has caused “significant financial losses,” he continued.
The air force of the Taliban Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that it had started evacuating people from Baghlan, rescued a significant number of people stranded in flooded areas, and evacuated 100 injured people to military hospitals in the area.
The floods are a stark reminder of Afghanistan’s vulnerability to the climate crisis, according to Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, who stated on X that the Taliban and other international actors need to provide both immediate aid and long-term planning.
In April, the nation experienced flash floods and heavy rains that claimed at least 70 lives. In addition, three mosques, four schools, and about 2,000 houses sustained damage.