The death toll from flash floods in Afghanistan has reached 56, with 30 people still missing, officials said.
About 1,000 homes have been damaged by torrential rains and flash floods across the war-torn country.
Tamim Azimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Disaster Management, said 56 people have been confirmed dead.
“Another 25 people were injured and 30 are missing from the rains and flash floods,” Azimi said.
Among the flood victims are women and children.
Rescue operations continue in the affected provinces.
Western Herat Province is the worst-hit province, where heavy rains across the country have killed 22 people in the past three days.
The flooding has displaced hundreds of families, Azimi said.
About 4,000 acres of farmland were destroyed and more than 3,000 farmers’ livestock were killed.
The government sent emergency teams to assess the seriousness of the damage and to help those affected.
The floods came days after the Afghanistan Meteorological Department issued a warning May 2 for heavy rains and flash floods with 10 to 30 mm of rain in 15 of 34 provinces.
Afghanistan often suffers from natural disasters that result in many deaths, such as the May 2014 landslides in the northeast of the country, which killed about 2,000 people.
Last August, about 200 people died and about 1,000 homes were destroyed by floods caused by heavy rains in about a dozen Afghan provinces.
