Death toll due to the harsh winter surges to 126

Share:

KABUL (SW) – The Ministry of Disaster Management has announced that the death toll due to the harsh winter has increased to 126 people in 24 provinces of Afghanistan.

The ministry announced on Tuesday that in addition to human casualties, about 70,000 livestock were also lost as a result of the severe cold.

The Ministry of Disaster Management has emphasized that the process of providing aid is ongoing in cooperation with aid organizations in vulnerable areas, and those who have been affected have been helped.

Temperatures fell as low as minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 Fahrenheit) at the end of last week with fears that conditions could get even colder. The temperatures are well below average for this time of year, with the coldest conditions recorded in the north, according to CNN meteorologists.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Afghanistan said in a tweet Wednesday that livestock losses posed a further risk to families with more than 21 million people urgently needing food and agricultural support.

The Taliban takeover in August 2021 has plunged Afghanistan into an economic and humanitarian crisis.

Humanitarian partners are providing heating, money for fuel and warm clothes to families, but the distribution of aid has been severely impacted by the Taliban’s ban on female aid workers, the UNOCHA in Afghanistan said in a tweet.

At least half a dozen major foreign aid groups have temporarily suspended their operations in Afghanistan since December, when the Taliban ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations to stop their female employees from coming to work, or risk having their NGO licenses revoked.

Some of the UN’s most senior female officials have been meeting Taliban leaders in Kabul to discuss the ban on female aid workers, after the agency had to suspend some of its “time-critical” programs in Afghanistan due to the absence of female aid workers.

Women’s rights, freedoms and access to education have been severely eroded under the Talibanwhich has recently barred females from accessing education.

Half of Afghanistan’s population is experiencing acute hunger, and while conflict has subsided, violence, fear and deprivation remain, a UN report in November found.

ENDS

 

 

 

Share: