Trader Nazer Mohammad rushed home as soon as he heard about flash floods hitting the outskirts of Pul-e-Khumri, a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. When he got there, everything had been razed, including his house and his family of five.
“Everything happened suddenly. I came home, but there was no home there. Instead, I saw the entire neighborhood covered in mud and water,” said Mohammad, 48. He buried his wife and his children, ages 15 and 8, but he is still looking for two daughters, ages 6 and 11.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) estimates that unusually heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan have caused more than 300 deaths and destroyed thousands of homes, most of them in the northern province of Baghlan, which suffered the worst of the Friday's floods.
Mohammad said he found the bodies of his wife and two children on Friday night on the outskirts of Pul-e-Khumri.
“I hope someone found my daughters alive,” she said, holding back tears. “In the blink of an eye I lost everything: family, home, belongings. Now I have nothing left.”
More than 50 children have died, according to UNICEF, one of several international aid groups sending relief teams, medicine, blankets and other supplies. The World Health Organization delivered 7 tons of medicines and emergency kits.
Save the Children said some 600,000 people, half of them children, live in the five districts of Baghlan that have been severely affected 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 devastated,” said Arshad Malik, national director of Save the Children. “Flash floods devastated villages, swept away houses and killed livestock. The children have lost everything. “Families still recovering from the economic impacts of three years of drought urgently need help.”
He said Afghanistan is the least prepared country to cope with climate change patterns, such as heavier seasonal rains, and needs help from the international community.
At least 70 people died in April due to heavy rains and flash floods, which also destroyed some 2,000 homes.
