At least 50 dead in heavy rains and floods in Afghanistan’s Ghor province Weather report

Officials in the central region expect the number of victims to rise as rising waters destroy thousands of homes.

According to authorities, at least 50 people have been killed and thousands of houses destroyed after renewed heavy rain and flooding in central Afghanistan.

Flash floods caused by torrential seasonal rains devastated vast areas across Afghanistan for weeks, killing hundreds of people, leaving thousands injured and destroying homes and communities.

At least 50 people were dead in Ghor province, police spokesman Abdul Rahman Badri said on Saturday, adding that he expected the number of victims to rise.

“These terrible floods have also killed thousands of cattle… They have destroyed hundreds of hectares of agricultural land, hundreds of bridges and culverts and thousands of trees,” he said.

According to preliminary reports, dozens of people were missing, said Abdul Wahid Hamas, spokesman for the Ghor provincial governor.

Mawlawi Abdul Hai Zaeem, head of Ghor’s information department, said the recent spell of rain began on Friday, cutting off many important roads to the region.

He said that in the provincial capital Firoz Koh, 2,000 houses were completely destroyed, 4,000 were partially damaged and more than 2,000 shops were under water.

Last week, the Taliban refugee ministry said the death toll from floods in northern Afghanistan had risen to 315 and more than 1,600 people had been injured.

Afghanistan is prone to natural disasters and the United Nations considers it one of the countries most affected by climate change.

On Wednesday, a helicopter used by the Afghan air force crashed due to “technical problems” during attempts to recover the bodies of people who had fallen into a river in Ghor, killing one person and injuring 12 people, the defense ministry said.

People displaced by previous floods lacked adequate humanitarian assistance. According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), the survivors no longer have a home, land or livelihood.

Most of Baghlan, the worst-hit northern province, was “inaccessible to trucks,” the WFP said.