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ISLAMABAD: For communities living along Afghanistan&#39;s riverbeds, the floods came fast. But for the aid system meant to reach them, the money never did. Since late March, floodwaters have torn through 26 provinces, severing roads and cutting off delivery of food, medicine and clean water to some of the world&#39;s most vulnerable people, according to UNHCR&#39;s Emergency Flash Update #9, issued early April. At least 51 people have been killed, 114 injured and five remain missing, according to Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) field data published April 4. More than 2,634 families have lost their homes entirely. But the deaths and rubble only tell part of the story. The floods have damaged about 13,400 acres of farmland and killed 1,730 head of livestock, according to the ARCS report, destroying the harvests and herds that millions of rural families rely on to survive the coming months. Afghanistan was already hungry before the water came. Malnutrition exceeds emergency thresholds in 25 out of 34 provinces, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). The international organization warns that further destruction of farmland in designated hunger hotspots will push those numbers higher. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the country is confronting &quot;intensifying climate shocks&quot; on top of a hunger crisis already affecting 17.4 million people. In addition, flood damage to water and sanitation infrastructure has raised the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks across affected provinces. The UNICEF 2026 Humanitarian Appeal aims to reach nearly 16 million people with urgent water, sanitation and health services in response to these compounding emergencies; however, aid has fallen short of its goals. The system meant to deliver that response was already stretched to breaking point. In February, only 160,498 people received clean water and sanitation services, compared with a cluster target of 7.8 million, according to the Afghanistan WASH Cluster&#39;s 2026 report. Across all of 2026, only 304,290 people had been reached so far. The reason is money &ndash; or rather, the absence of it. The 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan requires $1.71 billion to address needs across Afghanistan but remains critically underfunded, according to OCHA. UNHCR alone requires $454 million for Afghanistan this year; as of the end of February, only 15% had been received. Further rainfall is expected, with the IFRC warning that it would leave thousands of already-devastated families at risk of a third wave.

An Afghan motorist wades across a flooded road during rainfall in Ghazni Province on April 1, 2026. (AFP)

Afghanistan

Floodwaters have torn through 26 Afghan provinces, severing roads and cutting off delivery of food, medicine and clean water to some of the world's most vulnerable people.

Floods have worsened Afghanistan's already broken aid system

BREST: The world&#39;s oceans absorbed a record amount of heat in 2025, an international team of scientists said Friday, further priming conditions for sea level rise, violent storms, and coral death. The heat that has accumulated in the oceans last year increased by approximately 23 zettajoules &mdash;&nbsp;an amount equivalent to nearly four decades of global primary energy consumption. This finding &mdash; published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences &mdash; was the highest reading of any year since modern record keeping began in the early 1950s, researchers said. To derive these calculations, more than 50 scientists from 31 research institutions used multiple sources including a thousands-strong fleet of floating robots that track ocean changes to depths of 2,000 metres. Peering into the depths, rather than fluctuations at the surface, provides a better indicator of how oceans are responding to &quot;sustained pressure&quot; from humanity&#39;s emissions, said study co-author Karina von Schuckmann. &quot;The picture is clear: results for 2025 confirm that the ocean continues to warm,&quot; von Schuckmann, an oceanographer from French research institute Mercator Ocean International, told AFP. Oceans are a key regulator of Earth&#39;s climate because they soak up 90 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere caused by humanity&#39;s release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. All that additional energy has a powerful knock-on effect. Warmer oceans increase moisture in the atmosphere, providing fuel for tropical cyclones and destructive rainfall. Hotter seas also directly contribute to sea level rise &mdash; water expands when it warms up &mdash; and make conditions unbearable for tropical reefs, whose corals perish during prolonged marine heatwaves. &quot;As long as the Earth continues to accumulate heat, ocean heat content will keep rising, sea level will rise and new records will be set,&quot; said von Schuckmann. Humanity&#39;s choice Ocean warming is not uniform, with some areas warming faster than others. The tropical oceans, the South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the northern Indian Ocean, and the Southern Ocean were among waters that absorbed record amounts of heat in 2025. This occurred even as average sea surface temperatures decreased slightly in 2025 &mdash; yet still remained the third-highest value ever measured. This decrease is explained by the shift from a powerful, warming El Nino event in 2023&ndash;2024 to La Nina-type conditions generally associated with a temporary cooling of the ocean surface. In the long term, the rate of ocean warming is accelerating due to a sustained increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere caused mainly by burning fossil fuels. As long as global warming is not addressed and the amount of heat trapped in the atmosphere keeps rising, oceans will keep breaking records, the researchers said. &quot;The greatest uncertainty in the climate system is no longer the physics, but the choices humanity makes,&quot; said von Schuckmann. &quot;Rapid emission reductions can still limit future impacts and help safeguard a climate in which societies and ecosystems can thrive.

Gadgets

The heat that has accumulated in the oceans last year increased by approximately 23 zettajoules — an amount equivalent to nearly four decades of global primary energy consumption.

Experts say oceans soaked up record heat levels in 2025

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan&#39;s 2025 monsoon season killed more than 1,000 people and affected nearly 7 million others, with climate scientists determining the extreme rainfall was approximately 12% more intense than it would have been without human-induced climate change, according to a report released by Christian Aid. The &ldquo;Counting the Cost 2025&quot; annual report noted how the floods, which struck Pakistan between June and September, submerged 1.3 million acres of crops and caused $1.4 billion in agricultural losses alone. The monsoon rains damaged 12,500 homes, washed away 240 bridges, and killed at least 6,500 livestock, according to the report. More than 600 kilometers (375 miles) of roads were damaged. &quot;These climate disasters are a warning of what lies ahead if we do not accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels,&quot; the Christian Aid&#39;s Chief Executive, Patrick Watt, said in the report&#39;s foreword. The climate attribution finding came from a World Weather Attribution study cited in the Christian Aid report, which analyzed how human-caused global warming intensified the monsoon rainfall. Torrential rains triggered deadly floods, landslides, and flash floods throughout the country, with rivers overflowing and thousands of towns submerged, according to the report. Entire communities were displaced, particularly in vulnerable regions. The monsoon season, combined with glacial floods and riverine inundation, created catastrophic conditions across Pakistan, according to Christian Aid. The agricultural losses hit particularly hard in a country where the sector is critical to millions of livelihoods. Pakistan&#39;s disaster was part of a broader India-Pakistan monsoon season that killed at least 1,860 people across both countries and caused up to $6 billion in combined damage, ranking as the fifth most expensive climate disaster globally in 2025, according to the Christian Aid report. Christian Aid stated that the cost figures often exclude forms of loss that are difficult to quantify, &quot;such as damages to livelihoods, lost income, long-term damage to the environment, and permanent displacement of residents.&quot; &quot;As a result, the true toll of disasters is almost certainly far higher than the insured losses suggested,&quot; the report stated. Scientists have linked the extremity of monsoon seasons to human-driven climate change, estimating that for every degree of warming, monsoon rains will likely increase by around 5%, according to research cited in the Christian Aid report. &quot;Warmer oceans and atmosphere supercharge evaporation, increasing atmospheric moisture and fueling heavier downpours,&quot; the report stated. These conditions also accelerate the melting of glaciers and permafrost, &quot;further amplifying the risk of floods and landslides.&quot; Pakistan&#39;s monsoon occurred during what Christian Aid characterized as &quot;a year of climate breakdown.&rdquo; The report noted that &quot;some of the most devastating extreme weather events in 2025 hit poorer nations, which have contributed little to causing the climate crisis and have the least resources to respond.&quot; Christian Aid&#39;s&nbsp;Watt said Pakistan exemplified how &quot;the poorest communities are first and worst affected&quot; by climate breakdown. &quot;They also underline the urgent need for adaptation, particularly in the global South, where resources are stretched, and people are especially vulnerable to climate shocks,&quot; Watt said. The Director of Nairobi-based energy and climate think tank Power Shift Africa, said wealthy nations count financial costs while &quot;millions of people across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean are counting lost lives, homes and futures.&quot; &quot;In 2026, governments must stop burying their heads in the sand and start responding with real support for the people on the frontlines &mdash; through scaled-up finance for those in need and faster emissions reductions,&quot; he said in a statement included in the report. Christian Aid called for urgent action, including emissions cuts, accelerated transition to renewable energy, and increased climate finance for vulnerable communities, particularly through the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. The organization noted that attribution science has advanced to where researchers can now directly link greenhouse gas emissions to specific deadly weather events, with 213 heatwaves this century traced to pollution from major fossil fuel producers, according to research cited in the report. &quot;The suffering caused by the climate crisis is a political choice,&quot; Watt said. &quot;It is being driven by decisions to continue burning fossil fuels, to allow emissions to rise, and to break promises on climate finance.&quot; Thousands of school children affected According to Save the Children, the disaster forced widespread school closures across flood-affected areas, leaving tens of thousands of Pakistani children out of education. The organization identified the Asia floods as one of five major climate disasters in 2025 that disrupted children&#39;s lives. Save the Children and local partners created safe spaces for children in affected areas where they could play, learn, and recover, while also delivering essential aid to affected families, according to the organization&#39;s year-in-review released in late December 2205. The organization said&nbsp;that two million children would avoid experiencing unprecedented lifetime exposure to droughts if global warming could be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, according to the organization&#39;s analysis aligned with the Paris Agreement goals. According to Save the Children data spanning 30 years, climate disasters have cost the world more than $122 billion globally. It has affected an estimated 136,000 children daily.

Climate & Environment

Scientists link human-caused warming to intensified rainfall, as floods submerged 1.3 million acres of crops and destroyed 12,500 homes.

7 million displaced: Climate change made Pakistan's monsoon 12% deadlier in 2025

MOGADISHU: Thousands of Somalis have been forced to leave their homes in recent years as drought, conflict and limited assistance made life in rural areas increasingly difficult, a report by Amnesty International said. The report, &ldquo;No Rain, No Food, No Animals: The Human Rights Impact of Drought and Displacement in Somalia,&rdquo; said that between 2020 and 2023, people from southern Somalia moved to a refugee camp in Kenya after prolonged drought and economic strain left them without food, water or income. Communities facing worsening conditions Amnesty said drought linked to human-induced climate change had intensified since 2022, destroying crops and livestock and drying up water sources. Food prices rose by as much as 160% above pre-2020 levels, reducing access to basic goods and forcing displacement. Somalia declared the drought a national disaster in 2021. The report said government spending on health remains below 5% of the national budget, lower than the 15% target set under the Abuja Declaration adopted by African Union countries. Repeated displacement Many people displaced by drought have moved several times, initially to camps in southern Somalia and later across the border. Amnesty said services along migration routes were limited, leaving people to travel long distances without food, clean water or health care. Call for stronger response The Amnesty International&rsquo;s regional director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, said Somalia&rsquo;s contribution to global warming was small but its people were among the worst affected. &ldquo;Somalia&rsquo;s contribution to global warming is negligible, yet its people are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis,&rdquo; Chagutah said. &ldquo;Limited resources and ongoing conflict are not an excuse to neglect international obligations.&rdquo; Somalia ranks as the seventh most climate-vulnerable country in the world, according to the report. It mentioned that the government needed to develop climate-resilience policies and early-warning systems to reduce the impact of future droughts and floods. Appeal for international assistance Amnesty said Somali authorities should raise health and emergency spending and that high-income countries should meet financial and technical commitments to help Somalia adapt to the effects of climate change. &ldquo;The Somali authorities must urgently come up with climate-resilience policies that also address loss and damage,&rdquo; Chagutah said. &ldquo;The international community must step in to help Somalia adapt &mdash; not abandon it.&rdquo;

Africa

Amnesty International says prolonged drought, conflict and limited aid displaced thousands in southern Somalia between 2020 and 2023, leaving families struggling with hunger, disease and water shortages.

Articles tagged with "climate change"

Floods have worsened Afghanistan's already broken aid system

Experts say oceans soaked up record heat levels in 2025

7 million displaced: Climate change made Pakistan's monsoon 12% deadlier in 2025

Somali drought drives mass displacement as aid and support remain limited