Pakistan announces assistance for Afghanistan after heavy rain, floods wreak havoc

ISLAMABAD: The foreign office said on Thursday Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced assistance for neighboring Afghanistan as heavy rain and flooding killed 22 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged crops.
Afghanistan is already facing a humanitarian crisis, and the Taliban government, struggling to cope with the disaster that has affected more than a third of its provinces, said it would approach international relief organizations for help.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has expressed solidarity with the Afghan brethren in this hour of grief and announced that Pakistan will be sending relief assistance for the affected people,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“The Prime Minister has also urged the international community to help the already suffering Afghan people to overcome the losses caused by this natural calamity.”
Hassibullah Shekhani, head of communications and information at Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, said due to flooding and storms in 12 provinces, 22 people had died and 40 were injured.
The rain and flooding was particularly severe in the western provinces of Badghis and Faryab and the northern province of Baghlan.
Afghanistan has been suffering from drought in recent years, made worse by climate change, with low crop yields raising fears of serious food shortages. The weather has exacerbated problems of poverty caused by decades of war and then a drop in foreign aid and the freezing of assets abroad after the Taliban took over, and US-led forces withdrew, in August.
Shekhani told Reuters 500 houses were destroyed, 2,000 damaged, 300 head of livestock killed and some 3,000 acres of crops damaged.
He said the International Committee of the Red Cross was helping and officials would approach other international organizations for help.