The youngest of Shah Ibrahim Shahin’s children sit huddled next to each other on the thin “toushaks” – traditional Afghan floor mattresses – trying to stay warm amid freezing weather. The adults, wrapped in thread-bare woollen clothes, surround them in a small chilly room, which makes up the entirety of their home in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan.
Many provinces in Afghanistan have seen an exceptionally cold winter in the last two weeks, with temperatures dropping to as low as -21 degrees Celsius (-5.8 Fahrenheit) in Kabul. More than 20 people have died due to the cold wave, according to media report
At its warmest, the temperature in Baghlan on Friday was 11 degrees below zero. And without access to affordable heating, all that Shahin and 14 members of his family, including his 10 children, have is each other for comfort.
“We have one bukhari [a traditional coal heater]; we purchased some coal at the start of the winter, but in this [cold] weather, our supply is almost over, and we cannot afford any more,” the 54-year-old Shahin told Al Jazeera, sitting inside the nippy room.
Shahin, a taxi driver by profession, has been out of work for almost a year. The country’s new Taliban rulers have struggled to revive the economy for more than 18 months since they returned to power. Their government, still facing international isolation, has been unable to cope with rampant poverty and a humanitarian crisis.
While the 54-year-old struggled to make ends meet, a medical crisis in his family put him in severe debt and the dwindling business meant he could no longer afford the fuel needed to drive his car.
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