Fresh Floods Kill 66 In Northern Afghanistan: Provincial Official

Kabul: Fresh floods killed 66 people in Faryab province in northern Afghanistan, a provincial official said Sunday, in the latest deadly flooding to hit the country.

Heavy floods in multiple districts of Faryab province on Saturday night "resulted in human and financial losses," Asmatullah Muradi, spokesman for the Faryab governor, said in a statement.

"Due to the floods 66 people were killed," he said, adding that at least five people were injured and others were still missing.

The flooding damaged more than 1,500 houses, swamped more than 1,000 acres of agricultural land and killed livestock in their hundreds, he said.

The floods came a day after provincial police said more than 50 people were killed in flash flooding in the western province of Ghor.

Just over a week ago, more than 300 people were killed in flash flooding in northern Baghlan province, according to the UN World Food Programme and Taliban officials.

The disasters are the latest to hit the impoverished country, which has seen above average rainfall this spring.

Even before the latest spate of floods, about 100 people had been killed from mid-April to early May as a result of flooding in 10 of Afghanistan's provinces, authorities said.

Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80 percent of the more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive.

The rains come after a prolonged drought in Afghanistan, which is one of the least prepared nations to tackle climate change impacts, according to experts.

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