70 killed in Afghanistan flash floods

The floods in the remote mountainous district of Baghlan province came a month after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village and killed 300 people in a nearby region.

Afghan villagers carry a victim after floods in the Gozargah-e Noor district of Baghlan province on June 7. Reuters

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan // Flash floods have killed more than 70 people in northern Afghanistan, washing away hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to flee, officials said on Saturday warning that the death toll was expected to rise.

The floods in the remote mountainous district of Baghlan province come a month after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village and killed 300 people in a nearby region.

The twin disasters highlight the challenges facing underdeveloped Afghanistan’s next leader as the country heads into the second round of the presidential election on June 14.

“People have lost everything they had — houses, property, villages, agricultural fields, cattle,” Baghlan police spokesman Jawed Basharat said about the floods.

“There’s nothing left for them to survive. People don’t even having drinking water,” he added. “They urgently need water, food items, blankets and tents.”

Afghan disaster management officials said they were scrambling to get food and medical aid to the area after torrential rains unleashed the floods, which forced thousands of people to flee their houses.

Officials recovered 58 bodies from the inundated areas, including women and children, with several people said to be missing, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

“There is a lot of stagnant water, and there are more bodies under the rubble and mud,” Mohammad Nasim Kohzad, head of NDMA in Baghlan, said. “We are still looking for other victims of this flood.”

The governor of the province, Sultan Mohammad Ebadi, said the death toll stood at 59, warning that the extent of the disaster was “massive” and the toll was expected to rise sharply.

“The floods destroyed four villages, and washed away 2,000 residential houses, agricultural fields and also killed thousands of cattle,” the governor of Guzargah-e-Nur, Noor Mohammad Guzar, said.

Officials were further assessing the extent of the damage on life and property in the affected area, the deputy head of the National Disaster Management Authority said.

“Our teams have also provided some edibles (food items) and medication to the affected people. More aid will get there soon,” said Mohammad Aslam Sayas.

But Mr Basharat, the Baghlan police spokesman, claimed that the affected families had received no assistance so far from the central government or relief agencies.

Last month a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village in a remote area of north-east Badakhshan province killing at least 300 people.

The May 2 disaster left hundreds of families homeless in Argu district of the mountainous province which borders Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.

The floods and landslides follow recent severe flooding that have affected a vast swathe of Afghanistan, particularly northern provinces with 175 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

Flooding and landslides often occur during the spring rainy season in northern Afghanistan, with flimsy mud houses offering little protection against rising water levels and torrents of mud.

Afghanistan is currently voting to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has been in power since the fall of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

Afghan presidential front-runner Abdullah Abdullah faces former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani in next week’s vote run-off.

* Agence France-Presse