New flash floods hit Afghanistan, leave dozens dead

Heavy rainfall wreaked havoc in central Afghanistan while the country is still reeling from last week's floods. Thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged and large swathes of farmland are flooded, local police say.

At least 50 people were killed as they were washed away in a new flash flood triggered by torrential rains in central Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday.

"Fifty residents of Ghor province were killed by the floods on Friday and several others are missing," Ghor police spokesman Abdul Rahman Badri said in a statement.

There is no data available on the number of people who were injured in the rainstorm that hit the region on Friday, Mawlawi Abdul Hai Zaeem, the head of the information department for the central Ghor province told the Reuters news agency.

At least 2,000 houses were destroyed, 4,000 partially damaged, at least 2,000 shops were submerged underwater and hundreds of hectares of agricultural land destroyed in the province's capital, Feroz-Koh, according to Zaeem.

Second catastrophe in a week

Afghanistan is still reeling from the impact of flash floods that struck the northern province of Baghlan last week.

At least 315 people were killed and more than 1,600 were injured, authorities said on Sunday.

Survivors have been left with no home, no land, and no source of livelihood, the World Food Organization said.

A helicopter of the Afghan Air Force crashed on Wednesday due to "technical issues" during an attempt to recover the bodies of the people who had fallen in a river in the Ghor province.

At least one person was killed and 12 others were injured in the accident, the country's defense ministry said.

Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate-induced disasters, according to the United Nations. However, it is facing a shortage of aid funds after the Taliban took over as foreign forces withdrew from the country in 2021.