VANCOUVER, CANADA – Fahid Abdullah Aldosari, head of Qatar’s search and rescue team, who arrived in Balkh today, May 13, said that a shipment of humanitarian aid from his country was delivered by a military aircraft. 22 tons containing tents, food and medical supplies and other basic necessities arrived as the people struggled to weather the impacts of recent flood devastations.
According to the Qatari official, five more shipments of humanitarian aid are expected to arrive from Qatar in the coming days.
Spring floods in recent weeks have raged northern Afghanistan, particularly the provinces of Balkh, Baghlan, Takhar, and Badakhshan. According to estimates from multiple sources, anywhere between 180 and 400 people have lost their lives while hundreds more are injured.
Victim families complain that response efforts and aid delivery have been slow and inadequate. Some affected areas are not even accessible by car, further complicating rescue and response missions.
Thomas West, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan, said that the United States and its partners are mobilizing emergency assistance, including food and water, for the victims.
He wrote: “Our implementing partners are mobilizing emergency relief including food, water, and other essential materials to communities in gravest need. Our thoughts are with those who’ve lost loved ones.”
The provinces of Balkh, Takhar, and Badakhshan in the north and northeast of the country experienced heavy rainfall and flooding on Friday and Saturday of this week. The floods come after a prolonged multi-year drought that severely impacted agricultural harvest, particularly in northern parts of the country where the yields had declined by as much as half.
The rainfalls were initially received by optimism in expectation of a better harvest season this summer and fall. However, the floods and their subsequent damage speak to the complexity of a humanitarian crisis in an environment stressed my multiple factors, including the implications of global warming and environmental degradation such as deforestation.
According to statistics released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), these floods have claimed 180 lives and left 242 others injured.The organization also stated that as a result of these floods, 8,975 houses in these three provinces have been damaged, with 80% of the casualties and damages recorded in the Baghlan and central Balkh districts of Balkh province.
The Taliban authorities, however, have reported casualties in excess of 400. As search and rescue teams continue to access flooded villages, the figures are expected to only rise.
Afghanistan faces one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world with more than 20 million people in need of life-saving assistance. The UN says that it struggles to meet even half of its funding target in the face of competing catastrophes including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and chronic conflicts and droughts in Africa.
