Over 200 people have died in a single province as a result of the flash floods that have ravaged northern Afghanistan, the UN reported on Saturday.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration told AFP that Friday’s intense rains in Baghlan province caused massive flooding that resulted in the deaths of over 200 people and the destruction or damage of thousands of houses.
An IOM emergency response lead stated, citing data from the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, that “more than 100 people died” and that up to 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed in the Baghlani Jadid district alone.
Taliban government officials said 62 people had died as of Friday night.
Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said “hundreds of our fellow citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods” in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, without differentiating the numbers of dead and injured, though he told AFP dozens had been killed.
Multiple provinces across Afghanistan saw flash flooding, with officials in northern Takhar province reporting 20 dead on Saturday.
Rains on Friday also caused heavy damage in northeastern Badakhshan province, central Ghor province and western Herat, officials said.
Emergency personnel have been deployed to the affected areas and were rushing to rescue injured and stranded people, the defence ministry said.
Afghanistan — which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall — is highly vulnerable to climate change.
The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming.
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