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Heavy rain dampens search for dozens missing in Afghanistan flood

Heavy rain hampers the search for dozens missing in Afghanistan's Nuristan flood, as the death toll rises to at least 23

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Heavy rain dampens search for dozens missing in Afghanistan flood

Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and flooding in the country has increased in recent years.

Reuters/File

Heavy rain and warnings of further flooding dampened the search on Tuesday for dozens of residents missing in eastern Afghanistan.

A major deluge had smashed through Nuristan province a day earlier, killing at least 23 people.

How many people are missing in the Afghanistan flood?

Around 100 people remain unaccounted for after Monday's flood in Nuristan province, the national disaster agency and the provincial governor's office said.

Officials also updated the death toll to at least 23, with 80 people confirmed injured in the disaster.

What is happening in the search for survivors?

Dozens of rescuers searched for the missing in Parun, the capital of Nuristan province, on Tuesday. An AFP journalist heard two distant gunshots, fired by people upstream to warn of more incoming flooding as the search continued.

Farid Gul Zaheer, a 34 year old pharmacist, said he had never witnessed such a dangerous flood. He described hearing children and people screaming as he was injured while trying to flee up the mountain.

Rescuers worked under heavy rain, using their bare hands and wooden poles to search for the missing. A bulldozer brought in to help was of limited use in clearing the masses of debris left behind.

Who has been confirmed among the dead?

Those killed included Parun Mayor Sayed Ahmad Arhabi, the Nuristan governor's office said. Governor Zain-ul-Abidin Abid described a tragic and serious incident and vowed that all bodies would be recovered by Tuesday evening.

Zakirullah Zaki, manager of the Spogmai Hotel, said the flood felt like an act of God had struck the town. He told AFP the rest of the hotels, markets and shops nearby were completely destroyed, though the Spogmai itself was still standing, surrounded by destruction, and the manager's missing younger brother was later found.

What relief efforts are underway?

Juma Khan Nayel, communications chief for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said floodwaters rose to unprecedented levels. The organization has deployed dozens of volunteers working by hand with shovels, and is urgently supplying food, water and tents to those whose homes were destroyed.

Afghanistan's defense ministry said the military had also been deployed to the area to support the relief effort. The United Nations said it was assessing the disaster.

Zaheer, the pharmacist, said he had lost everything, adding that everyone in the area was traumatized and had not slept all night. With further rain and storms forecast in multiple provinces including Nuristan, police officers in Parun warned residents to stay away from the river.

Why is Afghanistan particularly vulnerable to rain-related incidents?

Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and flooding in the country has increased in recent years. Mawlavi Mati-ul-Haq Khalis, head of the country's environmental protection agency, said this month that environmental problems have severely affected the Afghan people and contributed to a wider humanitarian crisis.

The flooding has also affected neighboring Pakistan, where 12 people were killed, according to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial disaster agency. More than 200 people were killed in flooding and rain that hit Afghanistan and Pakistan between March and April.

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