Heavy rain and storms have killed at least 45 people over the past few days across Afghanistan and Pakistan, disaster officials in both countries said Monday (March 30, 2026).

Rain sweeping across Afghanistan since Thursday (March 26, 2026) has caused floods and landslides in multiple provinces.

“Twenty-eight people were martyred, and 49 people were injured,” Afghanistan’s disaster management authority (ANDMA) said, while more than 100 homes have been destroyed.

Across the border in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 17 people were killed and 56 wounded since Wednesday (March 25, 2026), the provincial disaster management authority said.

Those killed in Afghanistan include a 14-year-old boy struck by lightning in the northwestern Badghis province, police spokesman Sediqullah Seddiqi told AFP.

In the same province, Seddiqi said “three people drowned while trying to recover driftwood to use for heating”.

The stormy weather also destroyed at least 130 homes, while more than 430 houses were damaged, ANDMA said.

In central Daikundi, the provincial disaster management department said a five-year-old was killed when a roof collapsed.

A woman was killed in the same circumstances in eastern Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, according to police spokesman Sayed Tayeb Hamad.

Afghanistan’s disaster management authority warned people to stay away from “rivers and flooded streams and follow the weather forecast seriously”.

The weather has already prompted the closure of several highways, officials in central and eastern Afghanistan said, with further rain and storms forecast for Tuesday (March 31, 2026).

The latest casualties follow more than 60 people being killed in snow and heavy rain that hit Afghanistan in January.

Afghanistan frequently experiences deadly floods, landslides and storms, particularly in remote areas with fragile infrastructure.

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather.

Severe flooding, a landslide and thunderstorms in parts of Afghanistan have left 17 people dead and 26 injured over the last 24 hours, authorities said Sunday (March 29, 2026), the latest casualties from extreme weather in the country this season.

The number of casualties could increase as crews from the country’s National Disaster Management Authority survey the affected areas, the authority’s spokesman Yousuf Hammad said in a statement. Thirteen of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, mostly in the western, central and northwestern parts of the country, were affected.

The severe weather also left 147 homes either completely or partially destroyed, wiped out 80 kilometres of roads and destroyed agricultural land and irrigation canals, Hammad said.

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

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. (