More than 21,000 families are at the risk of going hungry, as temperatures reaching as low as -50 degrees centigrade have killed nearly two million head of livestock in Mongolia.

Extreme cold has been devastating Mongolia since the end of the summer drought.

"The poor did not have the resources to stockpile food or fuel for heating and the supplies in the now-inaccessible villages as a whole are stretched," Rana Flowers, the UN's resident coordinator in Mongolia said.