Floods, avalanches kill scores of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan

02-Apr-07

FLOODS and avalanches killed scores of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said yesterday, as heavy rains destroyed villages, flooded farmland and drove hundreds from their homes.

At least 30 people died in the central Afghan province of Daikundi and seven in Herat, in the west, last Saturday. Another 11 died elsewhere in the country, government officials said.

"Six hundred people urgently need to be evacuated by air and are exposed to danger from rising waters in Uruzgan province," an Interior Ministry official said, referring to a southern district.

In neighbouring Pakistan, an avalanche killed at least 23 people last Saturday night and rescuers were struggling to find 15 more missing in a remote village of Turkoh in the Hindu Kush mountains of the Chitral region.

Hundreds of cattle also perished in the heaviest rains for years in drought-stricken Afghanistan. The floods inundated thousands of hectares of land and washed away or damaged key bridges around the country, including in the capital, Kabul.

The floods have also washed away part of a highway and a key bridge north of Kabul, cutting off links between the north and south of the country, residents said. Rains also caused avalanches and landslides in northeast Afghanistan, where nearly 20 people died last week.

Floods hit three districts in the northeastern province of Nuristan overnight and yesterday, swamping villages and washing away roads, provincial police chief General Aseel Totakhail told AFP.

"Sixteen people have died, seven others are wounded, dozens of houses have been destroyed. Villages have been cut off," he said.

Totakhail asked for urgent help from the government, the United Nations and foreign forces to evacuate people from the flood-affected area.

"Many people need to be air-lifted. Hundreds of families left homeless are in need of immediate help," he said.

Floods also affected the nearby eastern provinces of Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar, causing damage to houses and farms but no human casualties were reported.

Across the border in Pakistan's Chitral region, senior police officer Ijaz Ahmed said some communities had been cut off for days due to landslides. "If it persists there could be food and medicine shortages in some remote areas," he said.

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