A Taliban official confirmed on Saturday that at least 50 people have perished in Ghor province, western Afghanistan, due to floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains.
Abdul Wahid Hamas, the spokesperson for the Ghor governor, warned that the death toll is based on preliminary reports and could rise as dozens remain missing.
The region suffered significant financial damage, with thousands of homes and properties damaged, and hundreds of hectares of farmland destroyed, including in the provincial capital of Firuz Koh. This devastation occurred following the floods on Friday.
Last week, the United Nations’ food agency reported that unusual heavy seasonal rains across Afghanistan had resulted in over 300 deaths and destroyed thousands of homes, primarily in the northern province of Baghlan, which bore the brunt of the flooding on May 10.
The World Food Programme (WFP) stated that the survivors are left without homes, land, or a means to earn a living. Most areas in Baghlan are now inaccessible by trucks, forcing the WFP to explore every possible alternative to deliver food to those affected.
This recent disaster follows another set of devastating floods in April, which claimed the lives of at least 70 people. The floods also destroyed around 2,000 homes, three mosques, and four schools in the western provinces of Farah and Herat and the southern provinces of Zabul and Kandahar.
