U.N. aid chief: 6 mln Afghans 'knocking on famine's door'

STORY: "The Afghan winter makes everything a lot more difficult and we're very conscious, the season and the timing and as you say, we see some of the consequences in loss of life," U.N. Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said.

According to Afghan government officials, more than 150 people have died during the country's worst winter in more than a decade.

"This is within a context of six million people, it's an astonishing number of people, knocking on famine's door, in famine-like conditions, six million people, it's unparalleled as far as I know," Griffiths said.

The winter, which has seen temperatures dip as low as --29.2 degrees Fahrenheit, has hit Afghanistan in the middle of a severe economic crisis.