Snow covers the streets of the city of Ghazni , southwest from Kabul, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2025. Heavy snow and rainfall over the previous three days have killed and injured scores of individuals throughout Afghanistan, the nation’s catastrophe administration authority stated Saturday.
Mohammad Amin/AP
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Mohammad Amin/AP
KABUL, Afghanistan — Heavy snow and rainfall over the previous three days have killed greater than 60 individuals and injured over 100 throughout Afghanistan, the nation’s catastrophe administration authority stated Saturday, as authorities within the impoverished nation struggled to open roads and achieve entry to cut-off villages.
Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Authority spokesman Yousaf Hammad stated 61 individuals had died and 110 have been injured, whereas 458 properties had been utterly or partially destroyed and lots of of animals had died in 15 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. The numbers, he stated, might change as authorities gathered extra info from the provinces.
Afghanistan is extremely susceptible to excessive climate occasions, with snow and heavy rain that triggers flash floods typically killing dozens, and even lots of, of individuals at a time. In 2024, greater than 300 individuals died in springtime flash floods.
A long time of battle coupled with poor infrastructure, a struggling economic system, deforestation and the intensifying results of local weather change have amplified the influence of such disasters, significantly in distant areas the place many properties are constructed of mud and supply restricted safety in opposition to sudden deluges or heavy snowfall.
The nation’s jap provinces are additionally nonetheless struggling to recuperate from devastating earthquakes that struck final yr, in late August and once more in November, destroying villages and killing greater than 2,200 individuals.
These displaced by the quakes are significantly susceptible to the acute chilly and dangerous climate circumstances. In December, UNICEF stated an estimated 270,000 youngsters within the areas affected by the quakes have been at “severe risk of life-threatening diseases related to the cold.”
Earlier this month, the United Nations stated Afghanistan would “remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises in 2026.” The U.N. and its humanitarian companions launched a $1.7 billion enchantment to help practically 18 million individuals in pressing want within the nation.
