Floods in Afghanistan leave nearly 100 dead

Flash floods killed at least 95 people, injured hundreds more and swept away thousands of homes in Afghanistan, officials in the crisis-hit country said on Tuesday.

The deaths have occurred in 10 provinces over the past 10 days as the country recovers from an economic and humanitarian crisis exacerbated by Western sanctions imposed after the Taliban returned to power last year.

Extreme weather also occurs when neighboring Pakistan experiences relentless flooding. The Disaster Management Authority said the floods had killed 820 people since mid-June, with nearly 320,000 homes damaged or destroyed and 129 bridges affected.

In Afghanistan, Deputy Minister of Disaster Management Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim told CNN that emergency food assistance has been sent to many areas affected by the floods and that aid organizations have promised to provide emergency assistance, but that may not be enough.

“Winter is coming soon and these affected families, which include women and children, have no shelter to live in. All of their farms and orchards were completely destroyed or their crops were damaged,” Muslim said.

“If these people are not helped to get back to normality, their situation is definitely going to get worse in the coming weeks and months.”

Afghanistan has recently been hit by a series of natural disasters and extreme weather events, including an earthquake in June that killed more than 1,000 people.

Muslim called on humanitarian organizations, the United Nations and the global community to help Afghans affected by the floods not only with emergency assistance such as food, shelter and medicine, but also for the long term as many people lost their homes, livelihoods and water sources.