SHEIKH JALAL: Emergency aid and rescue teams struggled on Sunday to reach areas of northern Afghanistan hardest hit by flash floods, as the death toll rose to 315 while heavy rains also caused the displacement of thousands of people.

Northern Baghlan was the worst impacted, with efforts to deliver aid hampered by destruction to roads and bridges wrought when the floods ripped through the province.

In Sheikh Jalal, about a two-hour drive from Burka, one of the most devastated areas, aid trucks full of food, military vehicles, rescue workers and local residents were seen stuck where roads had been completely washed out.

The military was using heavy machinery to pave the way, as well as to free aid trucks stuck in the mud.

Mohammad Ali Aryanfar, part of a team from the Turkish Hak Humanitarian Relief Association trying to deliver food to Burka, said they had been on the road since early morning on Sunday but were blocked in Sheikh Jalal.

“Our compatriots there (in Burka) need assistance and we pray that the road opens and we reach the area,” he said.

“People’s houses have been destroyed and they don’t have anything, they don’t have shelters,” he added.

The government said on Sunday that 315 people had been killed and more than 1,600 people were injured in the flooding in Baghlan. Over 2,600 homes have been damaged or destroyed and 1,000 cattle killed, it added.

WFP confirmed a toll of more than 300 dead in Baghlan.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2024