Heavy snow and rainfall kill 61, injure 110 over 3 days in Afghanistan

Heavy snow and rainfall over the past three days have killed more than 60 people and injured over 100 across Afghanistan, the country’s disaster management authority said on Saturday, as authorities in the impoverished country struggled to open roads and gain access to cut-off villages.

National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Yousaf Hammad said 61 people had died and 110 were injured, while 458 homes had been completely or partially destroyed and hundreds of animals had died in 15 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. The numbers, he said, could change as authorities gathered more information from the provinces.

Afghanistan is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, with snow and heavy rain that triggers flash floods often killing dozens, or even hundreds, of people at a time. 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.

Earlier this month, the United Nations said Afghanistan would "remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises in 2026." The UN and its humanitarian partners launched a $1.7 billion appeal to assist nearly 18 million people in urgent need in the country.