(Kabul) At least 35 people were killed and 230 injured on Monday by violent storms and rains in and around the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, a provincial official told AFP.
“On Monday night, storms and rains killed 35 people and injured 230 others in Jalalabad and some districts of Nangarhar,” said Quraishi Badloon, head of the information and culture department of this province bordering Pakistan.
“The number of victims is likely to increase,” he warned, adding that “the wounded and the bodies had been taken to Fatima-tul-Zahra hospital in Jalalabad,” the large eastern city and capital of Nangarhar province.
The death toll was due to the fact that “violent storms and rains caused trees, walls and roofs of houses to collapse,” he added.
Nangarhar governorate reported on social media site X that 400 houses had been damaged.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Residents collect mud following flash floods after heavy rains in Pesgaran village, Panjshir province, on July 15.
Tents torn down
Electricity and telecommunications were out of service in Jalalabad on Monday evening.
Responding to a movement of solidarity, many Afghans went to donate blood at the hospital, the governorate said.
In photos released by the province’s Department of Information and Culture, numerous medical personnel in white or blue coats are seen giving medicine or giving IVs to the injured.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban government, reacted in the evening on X, declaring: “we share the pain of the families of the victims.”
“The relevant departments of the Islamic Emirate have been asked to visit the affected areas as soon as possible. […] and to provide shelter, food and medicine to displaced people,” he added.
Images on social media show large roofs smashed in and pylons torn off.
The Torkham camp on the Pakistani border, where Afghan refugees returning to their country pass through, was a desolate sight, with the tents having been swept away.
Afghanistan, a country highly exposed to the effects of climate change, has recently recorded catastrophic floods in various provinces, which notably caused at least 66 deaths in mid-May in Faryab (North) and 55 in Ghor (West).
The province of Baghlan (North) experienced extremely devastating flash floods on May 10, which left at least 300 dead and many missing, as well as considerable material damage.
Afghanistan had experienced an unusually rainy spring, after an exceptionally dry winter.
The country is one of the poorest in the world and aid efforts there are suffering from a severe lack of financial resources.