Seasonal rains in eastern Afghanistan cause heavy floods, killing at least 9

ISLAMABAD: Heavy flooding from seasonal rains in eastern Afghanistan overnight left at least nine people dead, swept away homes and destroyed livestock and agricultural land, a provincial official and a villager elder said Sunday.

Associated Press video showed villagers in the Khushi district of Logar province south of the Afghan capital of Kabul cleaning up after the flooding, their damaged homes in disarray.

Abdullah Mufaker, head of Logar province’s Natural Disaster Management Ministry, said it was still unknown how many were killed and injured by the rising waters but that there were at least nine fatalities.

“The exact number is not clear for the time being, and the people have gone to remove the dead bodies,” he said.

Del Agha, a village elder, said the flooding was unprecedented in the history of Khushi. “It destroyed all the people’s animals, houses and agricultural lands,” he said. “People are homeless, they have been refuged to the mountains.”

Last week, heavy rains set off flash floods that killed at least 31 people and left dozens missing in northern Afghanistan.