Death toll from Afghanistan floods mounts to 50

KABUL, Nov 18 (KUNA) -- Death toll from floods caused by heavy downpour over the weekend in western Afghanistan has reached 50 while hundreds of people are still missing, officials and residents said on Saturday. As roads and transit routes have been washed away by the gushing water and aid agencies, both local and international, could not manage to provide assistance to the affected people in two districts of Badghis province, emergency assistance was airlifted by NATO aircrafts. Mohammad Nasim Tokhi, Governor of the calamity-hit province, told journalists scores of houses had been swept away displacing thousands of people. He said according to latest report obtained by the provincial government, 52 bodies had been retrieved so far while more than 100 people were still missing. The governor said the local officials and residents were searching the missing people in Bala Murghab and Ghormach districts, the worst-affected areas. He feared the death toll might go up as search was on for the missing. NATO spokesman in Kabul Major Luke Knitting said they had dispatched supplies to the areas and more aid would be sent to help the affected people. He said teams would be sent into the areas to help the locals in searching the missing people as well as administer medical aid to the affectees. Earlier, head of the emergency department Habibullah Murghabi said the areas were in need of urgent aid, including supply of medicines, food and warm clothes. He said the people, whose houses had either been caved in or washed away by floods, were living under the open sky. The official said, besides human casualties, more than 5,000 cattle had been killed by the floods that also washed away thousands acres of farmland. About a fortnight back, the country's Nangarhar province, situated in the eastern zone and bordering the neighbouring Pakistan, was lashed by heavy rains that killed at least nine people and destroyed scores of houses and hundreds acres of farmland. Early winter and snowfall was welcomed in Afghanistan after years of drought, but several areas were affected which mounted the miseries of the people, already living in difficult circumstances. (end) gk.bz.

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