ISLAMABAD — Shopkeeper Nazer Mohammad ran house once he heard about flash floods crashing into the outskirts of a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. Via the week he were given there, there was once not anything left, together with his population of 5.
“Everything happened just all of a sudden. I came home, but there was no home there, instead I saw all the neighborhood covered by mud and water,” said Mohammad. 48. He said that he buried his wife and two sons aged 15 and 8 years, but he’s still looking for two daughters, who are around 6 and 11 years old.
The U.N. food agency estimated that unusually heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan have left more than 300 people dead and thousands of houses destroyed, most of them in the northern province of Baghlan, which bore the brunt of the deluges Friday.
Mohammad said Sunday that he found the bodies of his wife and two sons late Friday night on the outskirt of Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province.
“I hope someone has found my daughters alive,” he said, holding back tears. “Just in the blink of an eye, I lost everything: family, home, belongings, now nothing is left to me.”
Among at least 240 people dead are 51 children, according to UNICEF, one of several international aid groups that are sending relief teams, medicines, blankets and other supplies. The World Health Organization said it delivered 7 tons of medicines and emergency kits.
Aid group Save the Children said about 600,000 people, half of them children, live in the five districts in Baghlan that have been severely impacted by the floods. The group said it sent a “clinic on wheels” with mobile health and child protection teams to support children and their families.
“Lives and livelihoods have been washed away,” said Arshad Malik, country director for Save the Children. “The flash floods tore through villages, sweeping away homes and killing livestock. Children have lost everything. Families who are still reeling from the economic impacts of three years of drought urgently need assistance.”
He said that Afghanistan was a country least prepared to cope with climate change patterns, such as the heavier seasonal rains, and needs help from the international community.
No less than 70 public died in April from weighty rains and flash floods within the nation, which additionally destroyed About 2,000 properties, 3 mosques and 4 colleges.
