Baghlan, Badakhshan floods claim 5 lives

PUL-I-KHUMRI/FAIZABAD (Pajhwok): Triggered by torrential rains, floods and landslides have destroyed hundreds of houses, killing three people in Baghlan and two people in Badakhshan provinces, officials said on Thursday.

The overnight floods killed three people including two women, swept away dozens of houses and hundreds of acres of farmland in Dushi, Dehsala and Guzarga-i-Noor districts of Baghlan.

Naseer Ahmad Kohzad, the Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) head for Baghlan, told Pajhwok Afghan News the main road connecting Guzarga and Nahrain districts was also damaged.

Mohammad Qurban, a resident of Guzarga-i-Noor district, said his house and belongings had been washed away. “I am facing immense problems in evacuating my family to safety,” he added.

The ANDMA official said relief teams had been sent to the flood-hit areas to evacuate affected people to safe places and provide them with food and medicine.

Elsewhere the flood killed two people in Badakhshan, an ANDMA official said. Several villages in Sharak, Darim, Urgo and Khashim districts saw property and livestock losses.

Recently, 135 people were killed and as many went missing, with hundreds of residential buildings destroyed in landslides induced by heavy rains in north and northwestern provinces of the country.

nh/mud