Heavy rain, flash floods and lightning strikes across Afghanistan have killed 28 people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Kabul, Herat and other provinces.
A relentless spell of torrential rain and flash flooding has battered Afghanistan over the past four days, causing casualties and widespread damage to infrastructure.
The sudden onset of severe spring weather has overwhelmed emergency services from the capital to the western border. Disaster management officials say the conditions have triggered a fresh humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 1,000 families and devastating vital agricultural assets in a country heavily reliant on farming.
Since the severe weather began on 26 March, the human toll has risen sharply. Afghanistan’s disaster preparedness authority confirmed on Monday that at least 28 people have died, while a further 49 have been injured as a direct result of the extreme conditions. The fatalities were caused by a combination of flash flooding, building collapses and lightning strikes accompanying the intense storms. The impact has been widespread, affecting Kabul as well as Herat in the west, Kandahar in the south, Nangarhar in the east and Balkh in the north.
In Kabul, where drainage systems are often inadequate and poorly maintained, sudden downpours quickly turned busy streets into fast-moving torrents, trapping residents in homes and vehicles. In more rural and mountainous areas such as Herat and Nangarhar, heavy rain triggered mudslides and flash floods that swept through narrow valleys with little warning. Traditional mud-brick homes, common in many Afghan villages, offer little resistance to such volumes of fast-moving water, leading to rapid structural collapse. Emergency teams, already stretched by limited resources and funding shortages, are struggling to reach remote communities cut off by floodwaters, raising fears the death toll could rise as communications are restored.
Beyond the loss of life, the economic and infrastructural damage is severe for a country already on the brink of financial collapse. A spokesperson for the disaster preparedness authority said 1,130 families have been directly affected in the hardest-hit areas. Floodwaters have destroyed 568 homes and 10 shops, leaving thousands homeless at a time when international humanitarian assistance remains constrained by political sanctions.
The floods have also severely disrupted Afghanistan’s fragile transport network. Around 93 kilometres of key roads have been washed away or badly damaged, hampering efforts by aid workers to deliver food, clean water and medical supplies to isolated communities. The agricultural sector, the backbone of the Afghan economy, has also been hit hard. Officials report that at least 244 livestock have been lost. For subsistence farmers and nomadic groups, even a small number of animal deaths can mean the loss of their primary source of income and food.
The disaster has worsened an already dire humanitarian situation following years of political upheaval. With international funding sharply reduced, local authorities have limited capacity to rebuild infrastructure or support displaced families, leaving non-governmental organisations struggling to fill the gap in relief efforts.
Picture three scenarios: a hospital that can spot a disease before the patient feels sick, a power grid that feeds thousands of data...
A conference focusing on the issue of missing persons has been held in Baku on Wednesday. The 4th International Conference in the Baku Dialogue for...
Kazakhstan has hosted its first Astana AI Film Festival on attracting more than 8,000 entries from 125 countries and emerging as the world&rsq...
Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
An Azerbaijani citizen died and another is missing after a cargo ship was attacked by a drone in the Black Sea, near the coast of Romania on Monday, 5 October, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
A large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region has killed two people, damaged homes and sparked a major fire at a key fuel facility, according to Russian officials and military bloggers.
Russia struck Ukraine overnight in one of the biggest attacks of the conflict, killing at least 19 people, Kyiv's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Around 70 missiles were fired at Ukraine during the attack, as well as drones, the Ministry said.
The German-Azerbaijani Connectivity Conference 2026 commenced on 6 October in Baku under the title “Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure, Transport, Logistics, Green Energy, and Digitalisation along the Middle Corridor.”
Türkiye’s COP31 presidency has unveiled an action agenda designed to turn climate commitments into concrete projects and measurable results, focusing on clean energy, waste reduction, resilient cities and industrial decarbonisation.
Greenland and Antarctica have shed a combined 11.3 trillion tonnes of ice since 1979, according to the most comprehensive satellite study of the planet's ice sheets to date, with researchers warning the pace of loss has accelerated sharply in recent decades.
The European Union will continue allowing large-scale plastic waste exports to Türkiye despite concerns over recycling rates, environmental damage and the risk of illegal waste trafficking.
Hundreds of thousands of deep-diving turtles, known as olive ridley sea turtles, have arrived on Mexico’s southern coast for one of nature’s most striking nesting events. But conservation officials warn that climate change is making it increasingly difficult for their eggs to hatch.
August 2026 tied as the hottest month ever recorded globally, pushing average temperatures above the critical 1.5°C threshold as extreme weather swept across several regions, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment