More than 1,000 Afghan children may have died of cold-related illnesses in a snow-bound Afghan province and the toll could rise if more relief supplies are not sent quickly, an international aid group has said.
Survey teams sent to 16 villages in a single district of Ghor province this week recorded an average of five deaths of children under five in each, most in the past two weeks, said Paul Hicks, director for Catholic Relief Services in western Afghanistan.
He said CRS feared the toll in Shahrak district could be far higher as most of its 250 villages could not be reached because routes were blocked by snow. Two other districts with a similar number of villages were also inaccessible by road, he said.
"I'd say several hundred and perhaps more children have died, and perhaps more children will die if they cannot get access to medicines and other relief supplies," Hicks said. "Our fear is that more than 1,000 deaths could be a conservative estimate."
Ikramuddin Rezazada, the deputy governor of Ghor province, said the government in the provincial capital of Chaghcharan had so far confirmed 136 deaths, mostly of children, in four districts - Shahrak, Tulak, Sargar and Tuera.
He said the province-wide toll could be around 300.