Afghanistan is not only one of the poorest countries in the world, it is also one of the least equipped to face climate change. The toll of the floods which affected, on Friday May 10, a large area of the country including provinces from the north-east to the west, continues to increase. For the Baghlan region alone, the UN specifies that rivers of mud have caused “thousands of injured and homeless” And “more than 300 deaths in a single day”. In this same area, according to Rana Deraz, spokesperson for the World Food Program, “2,011 houses were destroyed and 2,800 damaged”. Floods also hit Badakhshan, Takhar, Ghor and Herat.
On Sunday, emergency services were still unable to reach certain isolated areas, after the destruction of access routes, often precarious, which could not withstand the sudden violence of the rivers. Images showed rescuers on their way to villages in the northeast delivering aid to victims on donkeys. Taliban authorities declared a state of emergency and dispatched heavy equipment to allow vehicles to circulate. They also called on international humanitarian organizations to intervene.
On Saturday and Sunday, families tried, often on their own, to find their parents or their livestock buried in the mud. Having lost everything, many of them took up residence in nearby hills, fearing that the river would overflow again. In this country, little spared from misfortune, the first witnesses discovered the same scenes of desolation and helplessness. Residents clearing muddy water with plates, children and the elderly trudging through solidifying mud.
Around fifty children dead
In the suburbs of the provincial capital of Baghlan, Pol-e Khomri, bodies were still discovered by emergency services on Sunday. Unicef counted 51 children among the 240 people killed during the disaster. The organization, like other humanitarian actors, sent relief teams, medicines and blankets to this city surrounded by arid massifs and located at the confluence of small rivers whose beds suddenly swelled and surprised the inhabitants.
According to the Save the Children organization, nearly 600,000 people, half of them children, live in the five districts of Baghlan severely affected by the floods. For its part, it ensures that it has sent a “clinic on wheels” with mobile health and child protection teams to help children and their families.
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