More than 8,000 livestock animals died due to snow and cold weather in Sar-e-Pul and Kunduz provinces, local officials said.

The officials say that they have started distributing fodder to prevent further loss of livestock in Kunduz province.

“Committees have been established across Kunduz province to provide fodder for animals and food for shepherds,” said Muhammad Rahim Zulfaqar, an official of the security command of Kunduz province.

“600 families were at risk in Qala-e-Zal district,” said Shafiullah Jawad, head of the provincial department of disaster management of Kunduz.

Meanwhile, officials at Sar-e-Pul province say that 8,000 livestock died due to cold weather and they failed to rescue the livestock, as well as people at risk. 

“People in few houses that lived on the other side of the mountain, we tried to rescue their women,” said Muhammad Yaqoub Abdurahman Aka, provincial governor of Sar-e-Pul.

The livestock owners who have received assistance expressed joy as their livestock were rescued.

“Thanks to Islamic Emirate, if it was not for them, we would have lost our livestock,” said Juma Gul, a livestock owner in Kunduz.

“I would have been in coma, was it not for this assistance,” said Muhammad Yasin, a resident of Kunduz.

The recent wave of snow and cold weather has claimed the lives of thousands of livestock and a number of humans in different provinces of Afghanistan while some houses have also collapsed.