New floods have claimed the lives of twenty-nine people since Wednesday in Afghanistan, whose population had already been hit hard by floods in recent weeks, an official from the natural disaster management department announced on Saturday April 20.
The victims were reported in ten provinces of the country, no region of which was spared, Janan Sayeq said in a video address. A thousand hectares of agricultural land were submerged and 72 houses destroyed, he added.
Since April 12, more than 130 people have reportedly died in floods in Afghanistan. Some 25,000 people have received material and financial assistance from the government and international organizations over the past month.
Afghanistan experienced a very dry winter, which limits the absorption capacity of the soil. The country, ravaged by four decades of war and one of the poorest in the world, is one of the most poorly prepared to deal with the consequences of climate change, according to scientists.
