As the death toll from flash floods in northern Afghanistan rose past 300 on Sunday, Srikanta Misra, ActionAid Afghanistan Country Director, said:
“It’s been a devastating weekend for families here. They have lost loved ones but have no time to mourn them as flooding continues to wreak havoc. Most of those affected are now out in the cold, having lost their homes and everything they own. We have mobilized our team to assess the affected areas in three provinces – Nangarhar, Herat, and Ghor.
Sadly, it’s a double tragedy for families such as those in Zindajan district in Herat province, which was struck by a devastating earthquake eight months ago. ActionAid Afghanistan is still responding in this region. We stand in solidarity with the affected families. We have launched a needs assessment in the communities where we work to help them to get back on their feet.”
Teresa Anderson, the Global Climate Justice Lead at ActionAid International, said:
“The climate crisis continues to rear its ugly head. With the latest incident, Afghanistan joins a long list of Global South countries grappling with floods this year. And this is as the world continues funding the climate crisis by expanding fossil fuels and industrial agriculture.
How many more tragedies must happen for the world to prioritize climate action? It’s time to back climate action with the necessary climate funding. Communities, like those in Afghanistan, need this money to build resilience to climate impacts and pay for the losses and damages already caused by the climate crisis.”
ENDS
For media requests, please email Jenna.Farineau@actionaid.org or call 202-731-9593.
Srikanta Misra and Teresa Anderson are available for interviews.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.
Notes to the editor
- Flash floods were reported in 23 of the country’s 34 provinces.
- The floods have damaged crops ahead of the harvest season, affecting food security in a country where over half of the population needs humanitarian assistance.
- The impact of conflict, drought, earthquakes, and flash floods has been devastating for vulnerable rural families.
- The floods have had severe effects on the lives of people in Kandahar, where lives have been lost and houses damaged, as well as economic and agricultural effects as crops have been destroyed and livestock killed.
