Avalanches in northeastern Afghanistan have cut off tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of people already at risk of hunger due to drought, opening the door to a potential humanitarian crisis if aid cannot reach them, says a provincial official.
“If the snow continues to keep the roads to rural and remote districts closed and we don’t get any assistance, we would face a severe humanitarian crisis,” Abdul Maroof Rasekh, a government spokesperson from mountainous Badakhshan Province, told IRIN.
The snow has cut off 14 of the province’s 28 districts from the provincial capital Faizabad, preventing people from accessing markets to get food for themselves and their cattle, he said.
At least 70 families are trapped in their homes in Eshkashim District, where rescue teams are trying to help them, Rasekh added. Altogether, hundreds of families are trapped in different districts, he said.
The heavy snow and avalanches have led to the deaths of at least 20 people, with 11 injured, Rasekh said. The cold weather and lack of animal feed in these areas also killed around 600 cattle.
According to a report received by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 150 people traveling in a convoy in Baghlan Province were found alive after surviving overnight in their cars, under two meters of snow.
Poor roads and snow in winter mean it can take days to travel from one village to another in this a mainly Tajik-speaking province with an estimated population of one million, where most people are reliant on agriculture and livestock.
Badakhshan was among the provinces hit by drought last year which, according to an assessment by the World Food Programme (WFP), led 2.8 million Afghans nationwide to require food assistance.
Rasekh said there was a lack of food for people and fodder for their animals. “The Ministry of Agriculture only sent food assistance for 10,000 families before winter. Other than that, we haven’t got any assistance from the government or aid community,” he added.
Read more of the story here at the IRIN news service:
AFGHANISTAN: Avalanches cut off parts of drought-hit northeast
