Afghanistan flash floods kill more than 300 as torrents of water and mud crash through villages

More than 300 people died in the flash floods that devastated several provinces in Afghanistanthe U.N. World Food Program said, as authorities declared a state of emergency and rushed to rescue the injured.

Many people were still missing after heavy rains on Friday sent rivers of water and mud through villages and farmland in several provinces, causing what one aid group described as a "major humanitarian emergency."

Survivors walked through muddy, debris-strewn streets and damaged buildings on Saturday as authorities and non-governmental groups deployed rescue and aid workers, warning that some areas had been cut off by flooding.

The northern province of Baghlan was one of the worst affected, with more than 300 people killed there alone and thousands of homes destroyed or damaged, according to the World Food Programme.

"According to current information: in Baghlan province there are 311 dead, 2,011 houses destroyed and 2,800 houses damaged," said Rana Deraz, communications officer for the UN agency in Afghanistan.

There were disparities between the death tolls provided by the government and humanitarian agencies.

The U.N. International Organization for Migration said Saturday there were 218 deaths in Baghlan. Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told Agence France-Presse that 131 people had died in Baghlan, but that the government figure could rise.

"Many people are still missing," he said.

Another 20 people were killed in the northern province of Takhar and two in neighboring Badakhshan, he added.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter/X: “Hundreds of our fellow citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods.”

He added: "The flood has caused extensive devastation to residential properties, resulting in significant financial losses."

Torrential rains caused severe damage in Baghlan, Takhar and Badakhshan, as well as the western provinces of Ghor and Herat, officials said, in a country wracked by poverty and heavily dependent on agriculture.

"My house and my whole life were washed away by the flood," said Jan Mohammad Din Mohammad, a resident of the Baghlan provincial capital, Pul-e-Khumri.

His family managed to flee to higher ground, but when the weather cleared and they returned home, “there was nothing left, all my belongings and my house had been destroyed,” he said.

“I don’t know where to take my family… I don’t know what to do.”

Emergency personnel were rushing to rescue injured and stranded Afghans. The air force said it had begun evacuation operations when the skies cleared on Saturday, adding that more than 100 injured people had been taken to hospital.

“By announcing the state of emergency in [affected] In these areas, the Ministry of National Defense has begun to distribute food, medicine and first aid to the affected people,” he said.

In the Baghlan-i-Markazi district of Baghlan, a vehicle loaded with food and water was seen, as well as others carrying the dead for burial.

UN Secretary General António Guterres “expresses his solidarity with the people of Afghanistan [and] extends its condolences to the families of the victims,” said its spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, adding that the UN is working with local authorities to provide assistance.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) was also preparing a rapid response, adding that the floods should act as an “alarm bell” to remind world leaders and donors not to forget a country devastated by decades of conflict and beset by natural calamities.

"These latest floods have caused a major humanitarian emergency in Afghanistan, which is still recovering from a series of earthquakes" this year and severe flooding in March, said IRC national director Salma Ben Aissa.

Since mid-April, flash floods and other flooding have left around 100 people dead in 10 provinces in Afghanistan, officials said.

Agricultural lands have been flooded in a country where 80% of the more than 40 million inhabitants depend on agriculture to survive.

Afghanistan – which had a relatively dry winter, making it harder for the soil to absorb rain – is highly vulnerable to climate change.

The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the least prepared to face the consequences of global warming.

The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said on Twitter/X that the floods were “a stark reminder of Afghanistan's vulnerability to the climate crisis”.

"Both immediate help and long-term planning are needed from the Taliban and international actors."