Disaster

02/19/2012 09:01 GMT

KABUL, February 19, 2012 (AFP) - A harsh winter has killed almost 40 children in Afghanistan in the past month, most of them in refugee camps in Kabul with aid groups warning Sunday of more deaths as temperatures keep falling.

Twenty-four children lost their lives in camps on the outskirts of the capital which houses thousands of Afghans fleeing war and Taliban intimidation in southern Afghanistan.

Others died from cold in the central highlands, public health ministry spokesman Ghulam Sakhi Kargar Noorughli told AFP.

Firewood for 123 families was distributed during the first day of delivery to the Bagrami settlement for internally displaced persons in Kabul. Currently there are 203 families in the camp and the rest will get their firewood later this weekend. Three 70-kilo-sacks per family. The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan has bought the wood and works together with the Afghan NGO SHRDO, Service, Health, Relief Development Organization to organize the distribution in a correct way. Two other settlements with 200 more families will also get firewood frpm SCA this weekend.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | FEBRUARY 12, 2012 – International Organizations and aid groups funded by USAID have begun distributing emergency winter aid to vulnerable migrant populations in camps in areas surrounding Kabul. The aid, distributed by a task force led by the U.N. Office for the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), includes blankets, tarpaulins, clothing, stoves, and fuel. USAID, working through implementing partners Save The Children and the International Organization for Migration, distributed additional supplies to fill any gaps left by OCHA's distribution.

By ROD NORDLAND

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan government officials cast doubt on Tuesday about whether more than 20 children who died in refugee camps recently had perished from the cold.

Read the full article in the New York Times.

Concern delivers urgent assistance to 30,000 people in Badakhshan, North Eastern Province

Concern Worldwide has launched an emergency response in Badakhshan, Afghanistan after avalanches killed at least 43 people last month– burying an entire village in up to 10 feet of snow. At least 60 more people were injured or trapped in their homes across a number of villages in the north eastern province, and main roads were entirely cut off placing communities at severe risk.