Heavy rains have fallen in the past twenty-four hours in eastern Afghanistan. Flash floods caused by the rains killed at least 29 people and destroyed dozens of homes in Parwan, Kapisa and Nangarhar provinces, officials said Monday (August 15th).
At least twenty people were killed and more than fifty were injured in Parwan, according to Mohammad Naseeb Haqqani, spokesman for the Ministry of Disaster Management. Five people died in Kapisa province and four in Nangarhar province, he added.
A hundred people are still missing in Parwan, announced Hekmatullah Shamim, spokesman for the governor of the province. “Crops, dozens of houses and roads were destroyed”, Mohammad Naseeb Haqqani told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Rescue teams and emergency aid have been sent to the affected areas. Dozens of Afghans die every year from torrential rains, especially in poor rural areas where poorly constructed houses can easily collapse.