Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains kill 22 people in Afghanistan

At least 22 people have died in Afghanistan so far due to multiple natural disasters including heavy rain, flooding, and landslide, officials said, warning of worsening bad weather in the region.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in Afghanistan on Monday said nearly two dozen people have died and 32 have been injured over the past two days, taking the death toll up from 17 reported on Sunday.

“Twenty-two people were ‌killed, 32 injured and 241 houses damaged in flooding and other weather-related incidents across 13 provinces over the past two ⁠days,” an NDMA official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

Torrential rains have triggered major flash floods and caused houses to collapse in rural and mountainous regions of central and eastern provinces of Afghanistan, the NDMA said. It added that this has caused most deaths in the Parwan, Maidan Wardak, Daykundi and Logar provinces.

There is a continued risk of further rain and flooding in some areas as conditions remain “unstable” in parts of the country recovering from conflict, the agency said.

Afghanistan is geographically placed in a region which is prone to natural disasters and experiences flooding, drought and earthquakes which routinely cause heavy damage to the country.

Earlier this year, heavy snowfall and flash floods left dozens of people dead across the country.

The extreme weather events, especially the snow and heavy rain that trigger flash floods, often kill dozens, or even hundreds, of people at a time.

A United ⁠Nations Development Programme report in November said earthquakes, floods, and drought ‌had destroyed ​8,000 homes in Afghanistan in ‌2025 and strained public ​services “beyond their limits”.

In 2024, more than 300 people died in springtime flash floods. Decades of conflict, coupled with poor infrastructure, a struggling economy, deforestation and the intensifying effects of climate change have amplified the impact of such disasters, particularly in remote areas where many homes are built of mud and offer limited protection against sudden deluges or heavy snowfall.

This has further aggravated the challenges for millions of Afghans who are under the Taliban-run government which has no formal recognition.

Afghanistan receives international humanitarian aid which primarily forms the backbone of ​the government’s finances but that has been slashed since the Taliban seized power in 2021, leaving millions of Afghans to cope.