KABUL: More than 160 people have died of cold in Afghanistan this month in its worst winter in more than a decade, officials said Thursday, as residents scrambled for fuel to heat their homes in sub-freezing temperatures. Explain the reason for affordability.
“Since January 10, 162 people have died due to cold weather,” said Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the Minister of Disaster Management. About 84 deaths occurred in the last week.
The coldest winter in 15 years, with temperatures dropping to -34 degrees Celsius (-29.2 degrees Fahrenheit), has put Afghanistan in the middle of a severe economic crisis.
Many aid groups have suspended work in recent weeks in part because of a decision by the Taliban administration that most female NGO workers could not work, prompting agencies to close many programs in the conservative country. Unable to run.
In a snowy plain west of the Afghan capital, children, unable to afford firewood or coal, scramble through garbage dumps in search of plastic to burn to support their families.
Nearby, 30-year-old shopkeeper Ashoor Ali lives with his family in a concrete basement, where his five children shiver from the cold.
“The weather is extremely cold this year and we have not been able to buy coal for ourselves,” he said, adding that the little money he makes from his shop is no longer enough for fuel.
“The children wake up from the cold and cry at night until morning. They are all sick. So far we have not received any help and most of the time we have no bread to eat.”
During a visit to Kabul this week, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said the world body was seeking an exemption from the ban on mostly female aid workers, coming at a most dangerous time for many Afghans. Is.
Griffiths told JEE News, “The Afghan winter … as everyone in Afghanistan knows is a great harbinger of doom for so many families in Afghanistan as we go through these many years of humanitarian need … we have lost lives.” There are some results,” Griffiths told JEE News.
