Flash floods that swept away Afghan village kill 40

Kabul, July 29 (EFE).- At least 40 people lost their lives, and hundreds remain missing after devastating floods washed away a village in a mountainous province of eastern Afghanistan a day ago, an official said Thursday.

The village in the Kamdish district of the Nuristan province had around 80 houses, and “all of them were destroyed in the flooding” last night, Provincial Council chief Saydullah Paynda told EFE.

People have recovered some 40 bodies from the river banks, he said.

The victims include women and children.

The council chief feared that the number of the dead might increase as hundreds were missing in the river water.

Paynda said 150 to 300 people “are still missing and they could be dead.”

He said the river water had receded almost below the danger mark after the surge that peaked around midnight.

“The affected area is under the Taliban control and I call on the Taliban to rush for the help of the victims.”

Nuristan is one of the most impoverished provinces of the war-ravaged country.

Its mountainous topography makes made villages vulnerable to natural disasters like flash floods and avalanches.

Afghanistan often suffers from natural disasters causing the loss of numerous lives, such as the landslides in May 2014 in the north-eastern part of the country that left some 2,000 people dead.

Nearly 50 people died in May this year after heavy rains and flash floods hit 15 of the 34 provinces, damaging around 1,000 houses,

In August last year, nearly 200 people were killed and some 1,000 houses destroyed in floods caused by heavy rains in about a dozen Afghan provinces. EFE

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