AKIPRESS.COM - Global aid agencies are responding to a call for assistance by Mongolia as harsh winter weather raises fears for the safety and livelihoods of the country's traditional pastoralists, who have already been hit hard by a drought last year, says Reuters.

Dry weather has scorched most of Mongolia's wheat crop and now mass animal deaths due to a freezing winter, locally known as dzud, are threatening more pain for the country, where farming accounts for about 13 percent of the economy.

While the government has not yet declared the current winter a natural disaster, it has warned the situation could get worse. So far, a drop in temperatures to minus 55 Celsius has killed nearly 200,000 livestock.

Currently, 80 percent of Mongolia is under snow, making it difficult for nomadic families to travel along centuries-old pasture routes to find food for their livestock. Aggravating the situation is the fact that herders can live up to 50 kms from urban settlements and many are without cars.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has said it plans to provide trucks to get aid to families' doorsteps at some of the most-difficult-to-reach areas.

"We want to relieve the burden of that last mile of distance to the most affected," Ben Hemingway, USAID's regional adviser, said.

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