Pack horses reach Kara-Jylga after five weeks cut off

TASH-KÖMÜR — A caravan of pack horses carrying flour and fuel reached Kara-Jylga on Wednesday, the first supplies to reach the village since avalanches closed its only road five weeks ago, according to the United Nations Mission in Irad.

Kara-Jylga, a village of about 500 people at the head of a side valley north of the Toktogul Reservoir, on the tribal side of the Qara-Chik line, is reached by a 24-kilometer dirt track. Snow and avalanches close the track for much of every winter, but this year slides buried it in several places at the start of February, and the village could be reached only on horseback.

Clan elders organized the caravan, which brought flour, diesel for the village generator and kerosene up the valley over two days. UNMI's Lower Naryn sector office in Tash-Kömür said it had been in radio contact with the village throughout and that no one had fallen seriously ill.

"We had our own flour until the third week," Jumabai Sydyk uulu, an elder of the village, told the Herald by radio. "After that we baked with what the neighbors could spare, and we went to bed early to save the fuel." The track is not expected to open to vehicles before the April thaw.