Impacts: 1
At least 26 people have died and 40 are missing in flash floods caused by torrential rains in central Afghanistan, authorities said Sunday.
Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the ministry for Disaster Management, said a total of 31 people had been killed across the country in flooding since Friday and property and farmland had been affected.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said urgent aid had been sent to the main disaster area, in Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province.
Afghanistan is often affected by the Asian monsoons, which produce regular flash floods during the wet season, when heavy rains wash down dry riverbeds.
Rahimi told a news conference that 604 houses had been totally or partially damaged and hundreds of acres of farmland and orchards destroyed.