Monsoon rains and widespread flooding have killed dozens of people in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in recent days, and the torrential downpours have displaced hundreds of thousands.
Officials reported that at least 40 people had been killed in flooding and landslides across Northern India, with several others reported missing. Hundreds more were displaced or needed to be evacuated by search and rescue teams.
In Pakistan, 37 people were killed in the most recent round of floods — since the middle of June, authorities report that 820 have been killed and 320,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.
Similar flash flooding in Afghanistan has killed at least 95 people, according to authorities, and injured hundreds of others. Thousands of homes were reportedly destroyed.
“Winter is arriving soon and these affected families that include women and children do not have shelter to live under. All their agricultural farms and orchards have either been completely destroyed or their harvest has been damaged,” Deputy Minister of Disaster Management Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim told CNN. “If these people are not helped to get back to normalcy, their situation will definitely get worse in the coming weeks and months.”
Muslim called for increased aid from international organizations such as the United Nations for emergency relief, but given the frosty relationship between the Taliban and the international community, it is unclear how closely such organizations would be willing to cooperate with Afghan officials.
The Taliban regained control of the country last year after a two-decades long war with a U.S.-led NATO coalition, and international observers have expressed concern that the government is once again providing a safe haven for Al Qaeda and other radical islamist terror groups. Earlier this month, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s mentor and successor as leader of the infamous group behind the 9/11 terror attacks, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in the Afghan capital of Kabul, at the home of a high ranking Taliban official.
The monsoon season in South Asia extends from June to September, although peak rainfall is usually seen in July and August.
Source: Dailywire
