Kabul, Feb 10 (IANS): The UN, its partners and local authorities in Afghanistan have dispatched aid teams after 17 people were reportedly killed in heavy snowfall and avalanches.
The partners sent two mobile health teams to the Kunar province site in Dangam district to aid local communities and search and rescue personnel following the Sunday disaster, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Many more people were reported missing, reports Xinhua news agency.
The OCHA and its partner agencies also provide cash, non-food items, shelter kits and warm clothes to almost 2,000 people impacted by recent rain and snowfall in Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.
Humanitarians are continuing their work across several other parts of Afghanistan, with 60,000 people receiving food or cash assistance and relief items, OCHA said.
The current Humanitarian Response Plan targets just over 22 million people and requires $4.4 billion but is only 9 per cent funded.
By the end of last year, 180 national and international humanitarian organizations reached 19.6 million people out of a total population of about 37 million people, the office said.
The 19.6 million surpasses the 17.7 million people targeted in the last quarter of 2021, OCHA said.
Humanitarians hope to see a repeat of donor generosity in 2022 of the close to $1.7 billion raised through the 2021 Afghanistan response plan.