Angelina Jolie with earthquake survivors at a UNHCR camp in Gari Habibullah, 150 km north of Islamabad. (AFP)

Islamabad, Nov. 25: UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie today warned that if the international community fails to pump in much-needed funds in the earthquake-hit regions of Pakistan, many people would freeze to death as a bitter winter grips the disaster zone.

“There are so many wonderful pledges of money that could come in the next few years but the winter is in the next few weeks,” Jolie said at a press conference with UNHCR High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.

Jolie yesterday visited a remote valley laid waste by the October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people, most of them in the mountains of northern Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of quake survivors are still in need of emergency food and shelters, seven weeks after the disaster.

An international donors’ conference last Saturday had pledged over $6 billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the earthquake-hit areas.

“The recent international assistance pledges must be turned into reality as soon as possible to help the quake survivors exposed to biting winter in Pakistan Kashmir and the North Western Frontier Province,” Jolie said, adding these pledges need to be honoured.

She arrived in Pakistan yesterday with actor Brad Pitt, with whom she has been romantically linked. Pitt did not attend the news conference. Asked about her impressions on her trip to the disaster zone, Jolie said the scale of the devastation was colossal. “It’s a huge situation ... nobody sitting at home has any idea what this really looks like. It’s unbelievable,” she said.

Jolie said she had been struck while speaking to a little boy, the same age as her son, who was so grateful because his sister had lived. “He was so happy because his sister survived the earthquake and they didn’t think she would,” she said. Many survivors were still in shock, she said. “You see them and you realise, after speaking to them for a while, that they are still, understandably, very traumatised.”