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Warnings of heavy rain continue for flood-hit Afghanistan
The Afghanistan Meteorology Department issued yet another flood warning on Tuesday for numerous eastern provinces as heavy rains continued to fall.
This comes after about 10 days of heavy downpours across a wide area in the country, leaving almost 100 dead and thousands of houses destroyed.
As torrential rain continues to fall, some reports indicate 95 people have died and hundreds more injured across 10 provinces in the past 10 days.
Agricultural land and crops have also been destroyed and thousands of livestock killed, officials have said.
On Tuesday, the Meteorology Department warned of the possibility of relatively heavy rains with floods over the next 48 hours in the Badakhshan, Takhar, Nuristan, Kunar, Laghman, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Panjshir, Baghlan, Parwan, Kabul, Bamyan, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Paktia, Khost, Paktika, Ghazni, Uruzgan, Kandahar, Daikundi and Zabul provinces.
Deputy Minister of Disaster Management Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim told CNN emergency food assistance had been dispatched to many flood-affected areas and aid organizations had promised to deliver emergency assistance but it may not be enough.
“Winter is arriving soon and these affected families that include women and children do not have shelter to live under. All their agricultural farms and orchards have either been completely destroyed or their harvest has been damaged,” Muslim said.
“If these people are not helped to get back to normalcy, their situation will definitely get worse in the coming weeks and months.”
Afghanistan has recently been hit by a series of natural disasters and extreme weather events, including an earthquake in June that killed more than 1,000 people.
On Saturday, 20 people died in Logar province alone in torrential rain.
“Twenty are dead, 35 have been injured due to flooding in Logar province,” said Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, the spokesman for the disaster management authority.
The Afghan Red Crescent has meanwhile set up a camp for flood-affected families in Logar province, in addition to providing food and non-food items, for the purpose of health services.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a video message on social media and appealed for help for the victims.
“We ask the international community, especially Islamic countries and humanitarian organizations, to urgently help the victims,”
Iran’s foreign minister has said that Tehran had “good negotiations” with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) over the issue of water rights.
“We have the water rights issue on the agenda, and the [Iranian] president has assigned Hassan Kazemi Qomi [Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan] to follow up on the matter, with the view that the issues between the two countries should go in the direct direction and be resolved,” Hossein Amir Abdollahian told Iranian state media.
On the recent border clash, he said that the clash did not have any agenda, and the situation in Afghanistan is understandable for Iran.
Tensions between Iran and IEA escalated after Tehran accused Kabul of restricting the flow of water to Iran.
The tensions began last month after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned the IEA needs to “honor” Iran’s rights over the Helmand River.
IEA officials have stressed that they are committed to the 1973 water treaty between Iran and Afghanistan, but there is a lack of water due to drought.
Leaders of Central Asian countries and the EU chief met in Kyrgyzstan on Friday, where they discussed Afghanistan among other issues.
The meeting in Cholpon Ata was attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, and a delegation from Turkmenistan.
On Afghanistan, the participants discussed common concerns over the deteriorating situation in the country and reaffirmed their commitment to see the country develop into a secure, peaceful, stable, prosperous country, according to a joint communique.
The leaders also recognised the efforts of the international community to assist the people of Afghanistan in a principled manner and in accordance with international law and universally recognized norms and principles, despite difficult circumstances.
Participants also called on the international community to step up humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan and noted the key role of the UN in providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in a principled manner.
They underlined the importance of the establishment of an inclusive and representative government and the importance of promotion of and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Afghans citizens, in particular women, girls and ethnic groups.
The Islamic Emirate’s special forces in an operation on Wednesday killed a top Daesh commander along with his accomplice in eastern Nangarhar province, state-run Bakhtar news agency reported.
This Daesh commander’s name was reportedly “Turab”.
The operation was conducted on Wednesday evening in Wuch Tangi village of Shiwa district in eastern Nangarhar province, according to the provincial officials reported by Bakhtar news agency.
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