(Kabul) At least 70 people have died in a week due to the cold snap in Afghanistan, a country in the grip of a serious humanitarian crisis, authorities said on Wednesday.
Kabul and several other provinces in this poor country have seen their temperatures drop since January 10. The central region of Ghor recorded the lowest temperatures: -33 C° during the weekend of January 14 and 15.
“This winter is by far the coldest in recent years,” Mohammad Nasim Muradi, head of Afghanistan’s meteorological service, told AFP. “We expect the cold spell to continue for another week or more,” he warned.
According to the Ministry of Disaster Management, at least 70 people have died since the start of the cold snap. Some 70,000 cattle, a vital commodity for the Afghans, perished.
In the countryside, homeless families have been seen huddled around a campfire, while in the snowy capital the more fortunate gather around traditional charcoal stoves.
In several central and northern provinces, heavy snowfall caused road blockages, according to footage posted on social media.
The cold spell has added to the many difficulties that the country, grappling with one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, must face. More than half of its 38 million people face acute food insecurity and three million children are at risk of malnutrition.
Afghanistan’s economy, already battered by decades of war, has been mired in crisis after billions of dollars in international aid were cut following the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.
The distribution of humanitarian aid by NGOs has also been affected since the Taliban government banned Afghan women on December 24 from working in associations. The main NGOs have suspended their activities to protest against this decision which applies to all sectors except health.
Some have for some days resumed activity in this sector in certain provinces with female staff, after having obtained guarantees from the authorities that their employees could work in safety and without hindrance.