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Floods kill seven in the north

Floods caused by heavy rains and melting snow in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan have killed at least seven people and left hundreds of families in urgent need of assistance, officials said on Wednesday. “Flash floods that followed heavy rains on Monday night killed at least seven people in the Khost-o-Pring district of Baghlan province,” Mohammad Alam Rasekh, governor of Baghlan province, told IRIN. “Two bodies have been recovered from the water while five people are still missing,” Rasekh explained. The floods, which occurred in a remote valley of Khost-o-Pring district, killed dozens of domestic cattle and washed away hundreds of hectares of farmland and damaged many houses. Some 500 to 600 families have been displaced to nearby villages, Rasekh maintained. “Hundreds of affected families are in dire need of shelter and food,” Rasekh remarked. Abdurrahim Zarin, spokesman for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), said that the ministry had sent a team to the affected areas to assess the damage. “Due to the difficult terrain and road problems, our teams are still busy assessing the damage in many remote villages and we hope we will soon start aid delivery to the affected families,” Zarin noted. Flash floods on 30 April this year caused by heavy rains and melting snow in the northern provinces of Baghlan and Faryab killed at least 16 people and destroyed hundreds of houses, officials said. In late April, flooding caused by heavy rains in the Khuram Wa Sarbagh district of the northern province of Samangan destroyed 30 houses and damaged another 76, according to officials from the MRRD. In January 2005, floods and storms left 48 people dead and more than 1,000 injured in 13 provinces across Afghanistan. The most badly affected area was the northeastern province of Badakhshan, where floods killed at least 40 people and left up to 1,000 homes destroyed in 65 villages.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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