Afghan snowstorms death toll jumps

At least 25 people have been killed by snowstorms and avalanches in northern Afghanistan, more than a week after more than 100 people died due to heavy snowfall across the country, according to an official.

Northern Faryab province bore the brunt of freezing temperatures and heavy snow on Sunday.

Ammanullah Zafar, director for security in Faryab, told Anadolu news agency that Kohistan district was the worst hit.

“We can confirm that 25 people have died in this unprecedented heavy snow,” he said.

READ MORE: Scores dead in heavy snowfall in Afghanistan, Pakistan

Zafar said police along with National Disasters Management Authority teams were trying hard with their limited resources to save the lives of several residents in the area, particularly the stranded passengers on the inter-district highways and the people stuck up in the mountains.

“We have received reports about people missing from Pashtoonkot, Andkhoy, Qurmkul, Balcheragh and Dawlat Abad districts; efforts are under way to locate and rescue people,” Zafar said.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, particularly the internally displaced persons and the recently repatriated refugees from Pakistan, remain vulnerable to the harsh winter in the country that relies heavily on aid.

On February 6, Afghanistan’s northeastern Nuristan province was hit hardest by heavy snowfall and avalanches that wreaked havoc and claimed about 106 lives in the region, officials said.

Dozens of houses were destroyed and some of the victims had reportedly frozen to death.

“Avalanches have buried two entire villages,” a spokesperson for the ministry of state natural disasters told the AFP news agency of the Barg Matal area in Nuristan.

At least 13 people were also killed by the disasters in the Pakistani town of Chitral.

Neighbouring Pakistan has seen a lesser death toll.