PICTURES. Flash floods kill more than 300 people in one province of Afghanistan alone, WFP says

Un état d’urgence était décrété dans tout le nord-est du pays. MAXPPP – SAMIULLAH POPAL

Des crues subites dans la province de Baghlan en Afghanistan ont fait plus de 300 victimes et détruit des milliers de maisons, selon des chiffres communiqués ce samedi 11 mai 2024 par le Programme alimentaire mondial.

More than 300 people died during flash floods in the northern province of Baghlan in Afghanistan, a UN agency announced to AFP this Saturday, May 11, 2024, while a state of emergency was declared throughout the northeast of the country.

"We can confirm, based on available information, that 311 people were killed in Baghlan province" , said Rana Deraz, a spokesperson for the World Food Program (WFP). At least "2 011 houses were destroyed and 2 800 damaged", she added.

2,011 houses were destroyed and 2,800 damaged. XinHua – Mehrabuddin Ibrahimi

Relief efforts were underway on Saturday in Baghlan, where the International Organization for Migration (IOM), another UN agency, had previously announced to AFP a provisional death toll of 200.

"The IOM is sticking to 200 deaths for the moment", said a spokesperson for the agency, while numerous contradictory reports have been circulating since, on Friday, rivers of mud suddenly engulfed thousands of homes and hectares of crops.

The Ministry of Defense announced that a state of emergency had been declared in large areas of the northeast affected by severe flooding. The Taliban authorities, for their part, report "131 dead and more than a hundred injured".

More than a hundred injured. XinHua – Ka Buerfenshe

"Many people are missing", Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP, without providing a figure. Survivors were trying to walk through streets covered in mud and laden with debris, noted an AFP photographer in Laqayi.

Residents carried remains before their burial and a vehicle brought food and water to the residents of this locality in the Baghlan-i-Markazi district.

"Where to take my family ?"

Some were trying to clear houses whose exterior walls were covered in mud almost to the roof. The heavy toll is explained in particular by the fact that "people tend to live near rivers", Mohammad Khater, deputy director of OCHA, the UN humanitarian affairs office, explained to AFP.

Floods in this abnormally rainy spring affected other provinces of Afghanistan, one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change in the world but also one of the most poorly prepared for its consequences according to scientists.

The government spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, spoke on Herat (west).

Floods in this abnormally rainy spring affected other provinces of Afghanistan. XinHua – Mehrabuddin Ibrahimi

The Ministry of Defense indicated on Saturday that "operations to distribute food, medicines and first aid kits to victims had started"< /em>. "The Air Force began to evacuate residents as the weather improved’ ;quot; and transferred more than a hundred injured people to hospitals, he added.