Twelve people were killed and dozens miss placed in Afghanistan’s Maidan Wardak province as a result of severe flooding on Sunday, according to a spokesman for the Taliban.
About 40 people were reported missing, according to a statement from Zabihullah Mujahid, after flash flooding struck the Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province late on Saturday.
The news that 12 of our countrymen had been killed and 40 more were missing had been delivered to us with great sadness, according to Mujahid.
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He continued by saying that emergency response teams and urgent aid were being rushed to the disaster area in the Jalrez district.
The Taliban representative claimed that there had also been some financial losses.
In a statement, the provincial governor’s office added that hundreds of homes had been damaged or destroyed and that the missing people were likely buried beneath the wreckage of those homes.
In addition, the floods blocked the highway connecting the provincial capital Kabul with the interior of Bamiyan, washing out and destroying hundreds of hectares of agricultural land.
Due to Afghanistan’s location on the western edge of the Asian monsoon range, flash floods occur frequently there every year during the rainy season as heavy rain pours down dry riverbeds.
192 people perished in Afghanistan last year as a result of flooding following the annual monsoon.
The Taliban government requested assistance from the international community due to the massive amount of deaths and destruction.
Afghanistan was largely cut off from outside aid after the Taliban took control in August 2021.
The impoverished country fell into serious financial difficulties due to a lack of funding. Over the past four decades, more than six million Afghans have fled the country to escape the US-les war and economic crises. Many of these refugees are living in neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
