Several provinces across Afghanistan have been hit by heavy rains and flash floods in recent weeks, resulting in dozens killed or injured and affecting 13,000 families.
The Taliban’s State Ministry for Disaster Management reported that 13 people were killed and eight more injured in the past three days due to flash floods.
Shafiullah Rahimi, the ministry’s spokesperson, told KabulNow that recurring floods also destroyed more than 56 houses and damaged nearly 3,000 acres of farmlands in several provinces, including Laghman, Paktia, Khost, Daykundi, Nangarhar, Maidan Wardak, Kandahar, Baghlan, and Ghor, which were hit hardest.
Rahimi further said that the ministry has dispatched emergency assistance to those impacted by these natural disasters by providing them with cash and non-cash aid.
Afghanistan has been reeling from a series of natural disasters since last year and remains highly susceptible to their adverse effects, especially when the country is going through severe economic and humanitarian crises under Taliban rule.
Late in March, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that over 700 families in Afghanistan were affected by heavy rains and floods since the onset of spring.
Last year in September, the organization reported that Afghanistan was severely affected by flash flooding in central, eastern, and southern regions which affected nearly 15,875 people with over 5,600 houses either destroyed or damaged across Kunar, Laghman, Logar, Maidan Wardak, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Paktya, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, and Parwan provinces.
