Brian McDonald
Shopkeeper Nazer Mohammad rushed home as soon as he heard floods crashing into the outskirts of a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. When he got there, there was nothing left, including his family of five.
“Everything happened suddenly. I reached home, but there was no house there. Instead, I saw the entire neighborhood covered in mud and water,” Mohammad said. 48. He said he buried his wife and two sons aged 15 and 8, but is still looking for two daughters, who are around 6 and 11 years old.
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The UN food agency estimated that heavy seasonal rains in Afghanistan left more than 300 people dead and thousands of homes destroyed, most of them in the northern province of Baghlan, which bore the brunt of the floods on Friday.
Mohammad said on Sunday that he found the bodies of his wife and two children on Friday night on the outskirts of Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province.
“I hope someone found my daughters alive,” he said, holding back tears. “In the blink of an eye I lost everything: family, home, belongings, now there’s nothing left for me.”
Among the at least 240 people killed were 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 had delivered 7 tons of medicines and emergency kits.
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Aid group Save the Children said around 600,000 people, half of them children, live in Baghlan’s five districts that were severely affected by the floods. The group said it has deployed a “clinic on wheels” with mobile health and child protection teams to support children and their families.
“Lives and livelihoods have been destroyed,” said Arshad Malik, country director at Save the Children. “Flash floods have devastated villages, destroying homes and killing livestock. Children have lost everything. Families still suffering from the economic impacts of three years of drought urgently need assistance.”
He said Afghanistan was a country least prepared to deal with climate change patterns, such as more intense seasonal rains, and needed help from the international community.
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At least 70 people died in April due to heavy rains and flash floods in the country, which also destroyed around 2,000 homes, three mosques and four schools.
