Cold Spell dead tally Reached over 500 in Afghanistan

[Robbien]

Kabul, Mar 1 (Prensa Latina) Over 500 people died in Afghanistán due to an unprecedented cold spell, reported Christiane Berthiaume Tuesday, spokeswoman of the UN World Food Program (WFP).

The WFP is making efforts to continue distributing humanitarian aid by air in isolated regions of the country affected by severe snowfalls of the last two month.

Under very difficult weather conditions that UN agency has delivered about 40 tons of food to the inhabitants of Tulak and Saghar, in the central province of Ghor, where at least 300 people died. More than 600 people are working to clear the communication roads from snow to permit food distribution without obstacle to those people left in isolated areas.

Many children are dying of respiratory diseases since there is a shortage of heating means, declared the WTO representative

Five days ago, the WTO warned of possible catastrophic flood as consequence of the severe winter and noted that a probable thaw, in March and April, could bring a catastrophe in Afghanistan.

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