At least 157 people have been killed in Afghanistan’s harsh winter, a Taliban spokesman said Tuesday.with the death toll doubling in less than a week as millions face extreme temperatures with minimal humanitarian assistance.
The country experiences one of its coldest winters, with temperatures dropping to minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit in early January, well below the national average for that time of year.
The impact is exacerbated by the limited amount of humanitarian aid distributed in the country, after the Taliban banned women from working at the UN.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said on Twitter on Sunday that it was delivering aid such as blankets, warmth and shelter to an estimated 565,700 people.
“But much more is needed in the midst of one of the coldest periods in recent years,” he added.
Around 70,000 cattle also froze across the country. Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Disaster Management, told CNN on Tuesday.
Since the radical Islamist group came to power in August 2021, Afghanistan has plunged into an economic and humanitarian crisis.
It has been hit by natural disasters and is experiencing dry conditions for the third consecutive year.
Some 28.3 million people, roughly two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population, need urgent humanitarian assistance to survive, according to a UN report.
Source: La Opinion
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