Heavy snow and rain have killed at least 12 people and injured five others across seven provinces in Afghanistan, the Taliban-run disaster management authority said on Friday.
The National Disaster Preparedness Authority said the fatalities were reported in Parwan, Nangarhar, Bamyan, Maidan Wardak, Kandahar, Jawzjan and Faryab provinces following severe weather in the past 24 hours.
Local authorities have been instructed to deliver food and non-food assistance to affected families as quickly as possible, the agency said.
It added that travellers and vehicles along the Kabul–Jalalabad highway faced serious difficulties overnight due to heavy snowfall, strong winds and extreme cold.
The agency urged residents to heed weather warnings and avoid non-essential travel on snowbound routes.
Power disruptions reported
Separately, state power utility, DABS, said electricity imports from Uzbekistan were disrupted due to heavy snow and storms, causing outages across at least 12 provinces.
Breshna said one circuit of the 220-kilovolt transmission line between Pul-e-Khumri and Kabul was damaged, cutting power supplies to Parwan, Kapisa, Panjshir, Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Logar, Paktia, Khost and parts of Baghlan.
Repair teams have been unable to access the site due to severe weather in the Salang pass, the company said.
DABS added that a separate technical fault on the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan power line supplying Balkh and Faryab had been resolved, restoring electricity to Balkh, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul and Faryab provinces.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly weather-related disasters during winter months, particularly in mountainous areas with limited infrastructure and access to emergency services.
