The Asian Human Rights Commission on Wednesday said it had received information that the death toll from famine continues to rise in Yahukimo, Papua, even as some government officials denied the existence of any famine.

AHRC said 113 villagers had now died of famine and related diseases since January.

"The harvest failure this year, which was caused by climate change, resulted in the deaths by aggravating the lack of food in the villages," the group's statement said. "[The famine] has affected seven subdistricts – Suntamon, Langda, Bomela, Seradala, Walma, Pronggoli and Heryakpini."

"The affected areas had already seen the deaths of 55 villagers from starvation due to harvest failure in 2005, but the government failed to improve facilities in order to ensure food security since then."

Yahukimo district chief Ones Pahabol on Monday was reported as saying the entire district was suffering from famine – a claim flatly rejected by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie.

"I was shocked to read reports about this," Bakrie said. "In fact, no such problem exists. I received reports from the district head and church officials that there is no such thing," Aburizal was quoted as saying by the state's Antara news agency.

AHRC said the district had suffered from heavy rain, especially from May to August. "This caused harvests to fail. The scarcity of food has led to a rise in diseases, such as malaria and diarrhea," it said.

AHRC said the central government had sent food aid of 100 tons of rice, sweet potatoes and other foods such as noodles to the affected area on Monday.