E-Paper
Avalanches kill 18 people in Afghanistan
Rescue teams have been unable to reach the villages in Badakhshan province because many of the roads in the area have been blocked by snow.
Avalanches have hit several mountain villages in northeast Afghanistan in the past week, killing at least 18 people and destroying dozens of homes, a provincial governor said on Wednesday.
Rescue teams have been unable to reach the villages in Badakhshan province because many of the roads in the area have been blocked by snow, Gov Abdul Majid said.
The deadliest avalanche hit before dawn yesterday and covered five villages in Ragh district.
Local people recovered 13 bodies and were still searching for an unspecified number of others who were missing, Majid said.
Ten people were injured.
Five people were killed in Darwaz district on Sunday when an avalanche hit a village there, he said.
News of the disasters took days to reach the outside world because the area has no phones or other means of communication, the governor said.
"We have asked the government in Kabul to send helicopters so we can drop food and other aid to the villages," Majid said.
"There has been so much snow in the mountains and people up there need help."
A total of 10 districts in the province have been cut off by snow, he said.
Heavy snow falls have blanketed much of northern and eastern Afghanistan, making life difficult for hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty.
