Categories: CrisisMedia Wire

27 Afghan Kids Die of Extreme Cold

At least 27 children have lost their lives due to freezing temperatures in northern Afghanistan, officials say.

The children, all under the age of five, were killed in the remote district of Darzab in Jawzjan Province over the last two or three days, said District Governor Rahmatullah Hashar on Thursday, adding that roads in the district were blocked by a blanket of snow as thick as half a meter.

He further said that the blockade, in turn, had cut off access for villagers in the region to medical care as temperatures dropped to minus 10 degrees Celsius.

Hashar said the toll could further rise.

The provincial governor’s spokesman, Reza Ghafoori, also confirmed the toll on Thursday and said that aid relief would be given to the affected areas through emergency committees.

Back in 2015, some 300 people lost their lives after they were buried under avalanches across the Asian country, most of them in the eastern mountainous province of Panjshir, north of the capital, Kabul.

Each winter, heavy snowfall and avalanches claim the lives of many people in Afghanistan, where inadequate emergency equipment does no match the scope of its natural disasters.

Afghanistan has been plagued by instability and militancy for years. Although the US military invasion of Afghanistan ousted the Taliban regime in 2001, it deteriorated the security situation across the country, causing near-daily violence and a constant displacement of its people.

The United Nations (UN) estimates that at least 9.3 million Afghans — nearly a third of the population — will require humanitarian assistance in 2017, a 13-percent increase compared to last year, which comes amid growing violence, economic stagnation, and social upheaval in the country.

IFP Media Wire

Reports and views published in the Media Wire section have been retrieved from other news agencies and websites, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website. The IFP may change the headlines of the reports in a bid to make them compatible with its own style of covering Iran News, and does not make any changes to the content. The source and URL of all reports and news stories are mentioned at the bottom of each article.

Recent Posts

“Iran Hamdel” campaign sends aid to Gaza amid war

Aid items donated by millions of Iranians within a national campaign, have reached the beseiged…

23 minutes ago

Iranian deputy FM: Cooperation with Saudis serves as a successful model for fostering peace and security

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi has said Iran and Saudi Arabia are committed…

27 minutes ago

Official: Iran responds to IAEA resolution with increased nuclear enrichment capacity

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), says the organization…

2 hours ago

Pictures: Demonstrators in Tehran support people of Gaza, Lebanon

Hundreds of people gathered in Tehran on Friday morning in front of the United Nations…

2 hours ago

Int’l lawyer: US plans to sanction countries cooperating with ICC on Netanyahu arrest

An international law expert and analyst has revealed the U.S. plans to impose punitive measures…

5 hours ago

Minister of science: 25% of Iranian university professors emigrated due to economic challenges

Iran’s Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, Hossein Simayee Saraf, addressed on Thursday academic migration…

5 hours ago