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