CBS News
Afghanistan floods blamed for dozens of deaths as severe storms wreak havoc in the country’s east
Flash floods, high winds and heavy rain brought by a series of storms have devastated eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 40 people and causing widespread destruction, according to officials and aid workers. The hardest-hit area has been in and around Jalalabad city, the capital of Nangarhar province.
As of Tuesday evening, the Taliban-run Afghan government’s Ministry of Public Health put the death toll at 40 and said almost 350 others had been injured.
Hundreds of houses were destroyed, leaving residents stranded without access to basic services and suspectable to infectious disease.
“Public health personnel have been ordered to provide health services with full sincerity in order to prevent the spread of diseases and provide the best health service to the injured,” Sharafat Zaman, a spokesman for the ministry, said in a statement.
AFP via Getty
He warned that the death toll could rise as many people were still missing or in critical condition in regional hospitals.
“The military has been ordered to use all the facilities at their disposal to save people and provide shelter, food and medicine to the displaced families,” the Taliban regime’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement posted on social media.
Nangarhar province was still reeling from devastating floods that struck about two months earlier when the severe weather returned and, according to the U.S.-based International Rescue Committee charity, numerous families were still living outdoors while work continued to repair or rebuild their homes.
In the province’s Surkhrod district, five members of the same family, including children, were killed when the roof of their house collapsed and four other family members were wounded, according to Sediqullah Quraishi, a spokesman for the Nangarhar information and culture department.
STRINGER/AFP/Getty
Images shared on social media showed uprooted trees, toppled electricity poles, collapsed roofs and perilously exposed electrical wires dangling over some homes still standing.
“11 family members of the same family are trapped here,” said one person as they shot video on their cell phone and others dug through rubble with their bare hands.
“As part of the response efforts, the International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan is mobilizing teams to provide crucial support to the affected areas and deploying teams to conduct assessments and provide emergency health services to those in need,” IRC director Salma ben Aissa said in a statement.
According to local disaster management officials, the flooding has also caused severe damage to roads and other infrastructure, homes and crops in the neighboring provinces of Kunar, Panjshir and Kapisa.
Increasingly common and increasingly severe weather events across Asia have been attributed to climate change, and Ben Aissa appealed for more help for the impoverished population of Afghanistan to help deal with the effects.
“The continuation of climate-induced disasters in Afghanistan ought to be cause for grave concern: decades of conflict and economic crisis has meant that the country has faced setback after setback as it tries to find its feet. The sad reality is that without a massive increase in support from donors and the international community, many more will lose their lives,” she said.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
CBS News
The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”