Villagers in western Afghanistan began cleaning up Sunday after the worst floods in a decade swept away houses and forced many families -- already displaced by drought -- to abandon damaged homes.

Heavy rains that started early Friday and continued for two days caused flash floods in at least five provinces in western and northern parts of Afghanistan, killing at least 35 people.

Aside from washing away houses, the floods destroyed some internally displaced people's shelters and cut off access to remote villages across several parts of the country.

In Herat province in the west, at least 10 districts and some parts of Herat city were affected.

Video footage from Herat province showed crumpled cars buried deep in mud, collapsed walls, mud houses strewn with debris, fallen trees and people trying to rescue whatever was left of their property from the mud.

"We have lost everything here and have nothing left to survive on," Bibi Gul, a resident of Herat who had lost her house, told AFP.

Fazel Ahmad, another resident, described a similar sense of loss.

"Cows, sheep and even our pigeons are under the debris," Ahmad said.

Mohammad Hanif Arbabzada said about 80 percent of the houses in his village were destroyed.

In all, more than 3,000 houses were either partially or completely destroyed, according to Hashmat Bahaduri, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority.

Heavy snowfall across large swathes of Afghanistan this winter raised fears of severe flooding as spring approaches, following years of devastating drought.

Earlier this month, at least 20 people were killed by flash floods caused by heavy rains that swept away thousands of homes and vehicles in southern Kandahar province.

Flash floods kill at least 35 in Afghanistan: officials
Kabul (AFP) March 30, 2019 - Flash floods caused by heavy rains have killed at least 35 people in Afghanistan, washing away houses and cutting off access to remote villages across parts of the country, officials said Saturday.

Heavy flooding that started early Friday killed at least 12 people in the northern province of Faryab and 10 people in the western province of Herat, said Hashmat Bahaduri, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA).

Eight people were killed in Badghis province in the west and five in Balkh province in the north, Bahaduri told AFP, adding that more than 3,000 houses had been destroyed.

In Herat, 10 districts and some parts of Herat city were impacted, said Jailani Farhad, spokesman for the province's governor.

"Hundreds of houses have been destroyed and thousands displaced," he said.

Mir Gulabuddin Miri, director of the Afghan Red Crescent in Herat, said access to some areas had been cut off, preventing teams from reaching affected people.

"The destruction is huge. Over 12 areas in the province have been badly hit, people have lost their houses. We've only been able to provide them with some food and blankets so far," he said.

Aid workers in the northern provinces of Faryab and Balkh have also been struggling to deliver humanitarian assistance to affected families.

"We have dispatched our food and non-food assistance for the affected families, but the scale of the disaster is massive. We need more humanitarian assistance," an ANDMA spokesman in northern Afghanistan told AFP.

Rescue and aid delivery efforts after disasters such as avalanches and flash floods -- which often hit as snow melts in the spring -- are frequently hampered by a lack of equipment in Afghanistan.

Poor infrastructure also makes it difficult for aid workers to reach isolated areas.

Floods hit 40,000 displaced people in northwest Syria: UN
Beirut (AFP) April 2, 2019 - More than 40,000 displaced people in northwestern Syria have seen their camps flooded by heavy rains in the past three days, a United Nations spokesman said Tuesday.

Around 14 camps were affected in the northwestern province of Idlib, David Swanson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told AFP.

The Idlib region, controlled by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, is home to more than 3 million people -- more than half of them displaced by the country's eight-year war.

Civil defence workers known as the White Helmets have been working to save people and their scant belongings from the rising muddy waters.

"For the second day in a row, White Helmets... continue to respond to the catastrophic situation in the northern Syria camps," they said on Twitter late Monday.

One video posted by the group on Sunday showed brown water cascading out of a flooded tent.

In another published the same day, civil defence workers clung on to a rope as they waded through a brown torrent above knee level.

The downpour has affected tens of thousands of civilians, displaced persons, crops and livestock in Idlib, as well as in the Aleppo and Hasakeh provinces since Saturday, Swanson said.

In Aleppo province, tents were destroyed in several camps for the displaced and a hospital in the countryside had to shut down due to the flooding.

Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians in the north of the country depend on handouts from humanitarian aid groups, including food, blankets and heating fuel for the winter months.

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Iran president visits flood-hit zones as death toll hits 43
Tehran (AFP) March 27, 2019
President Hassan Rouhani travelled to flood-hit zones of Iran for the first time Wednesday after nine days of heavy rains that have inundated most of the country and killed 43 people. The authorities have been struggling to cope with flooding after extreme rainfall which at times has been equivalent to half of the average annual levels within 24 hours. The disaster, which one government minister blamed on climate change, struck in the middle of Iranian New Year break, with many relief workers on ... read more