KABUL: The death toll from overnight flash floods caused by heavy rain in central Afghanistan has increased to twenty-six, with more than forty people missing.
State Ministry for Disaster Management’s spokesman Shafiullah Rahimi said that a total of thirty-one people had been killed across the country in floods since Friday, and massive damage had been caused to farmland and property.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the government spokesperson, said on Sunday that urgent aid was being provided to the main disaster zone in the district Jalrez, Maidan Wardak province, AFP reported.
Monsoon in Afghanistan
Although the country lies on the western edge of the Asian monsoon footprint, flash floods occur regularly during the monsoon season as heavy rain courses down dry riverbeds.
Rahimi told a media briefing that 604 houses had been fully or partially destroyed and hundreds of acres of agricultural land and orchards swept in Jalrez since Friday.
He added that in the last four months, 214 people lost their lives in natural disaster-related incidents in the country.
