Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi/Agencies
ISLAMABAD/KABUL: The death toll from extreme cold jumped to 162 in Afghanistan in the last 16 days in the worst winter in more than a decade.
Residents of the war-torn country said they could not afford fuel to heat homes amidst freezing temperatures.
Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Disaster Management, said that 162 people have died due to cold weather since January 10, including 84 deaths reported the previous week.
Cold weather
According to Reuters, the coldest winter in 15 years, which has seen temperatures dip as low as -34 degrees Celsius, has hit Afghanistan in the middle of a severe economic crisis.
Many fund groups have partially suspended operations in Afghanistan in recent weeks after the Taliban banned female NGO workers from work, leaving agencies unable to operate in the country under international sanctions since the religious coterie took power in August last year.
In the snowy field west of the capital, children rummaged through rubbish, looking for plastic to burn to help their families, unable to afford wood or coal.
A 30-year-old shopkeeper, Ashour Ali, who lives with his family in a concrete basement where his five children shiver from cold, said that this year, the weather was frigid, and they could not buy coal from the small amount he makes from his shop.
