Flash floods have killed more than 70 people in northern Afghanistan, washing away hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to flee, officials said on Saturday warning that the death toll was expected to rise.
The floods in a remote mountainous district of Baghlan province come a month after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village and killed 300 people in a nearby region. The twin disasters highlight the challenges facing underdeveloped Afghanistan's next leader as the country heads into the second round of the presidential election on June 14.
"People have lost everything they had -- houses, property, villages, agricultural fields, cattle," Baghlan police spokesman Jawed Basharat said about the floods. There's nothing left for them to survive. People don't even having drinking water," he added. "They urgently need water, food items, blankets and tents."
Afghan disaster management officials said they were scrambling to get food and medical aid to the area after torrential rains unleashed the floods, which forced thousands of people to flee their houses. The governor of the province, Sultan Mohammad Ebadi, said the death toll stood at 74, warning that the extent of the disaster was "massive" and that the toll was expected to rise further.
Bodies of women and children were among those recovered from the inundated areas, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said, adding that scores of people were missing.
"There is a lot of stagnant water, and there are more bodies under the rubble and mud," Mohammad Nasim Kohzad, head of NDMA in Baghlan, told AFP. "We are still looking for other victims of this flood."
The governor of the remote affected district of Guzargah- e-Nur said that 74 bodies had been recovered by authorities.
"The floods destroyed four villages, and washed away 2,000 residential houses, agricultural fields and also killed thousands of cattle," Noor Mohammad Guzar told AFP.
Officials were further assessing the extent of the damage on life and property in the affected area, the deputy head of the National Disaster Management Authority said.
Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a statement said he was saddened by the loss of life and property in Baghlan province, and directed disaster management officials to dispatch emergency relief aid to affected families.
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