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Khalifa orders charities team for Pakistan flood victims

ABU DHABI/ ISLAMABAD — The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has directed to form a team of charities and humanitarian institutions to coordinate and organise emergency aid for those affected by the floods in the province of Sindh in Pakistan.

The decision comes from Shaikh Khalifa’s keenness to support brotherly and friendly countries in times of natural disasters and crises. And as per the directives of Shaikh Khalifa, charities institutions in the country will start providing urgent relief aid to support those affected in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and Pakistani government appealed for $357 million in foreign donations on Sunday to urgently help more than seven million people swamped by a second year of catastrophic floods.

One year on from the country’s worst-ever floods that left more than 21 million people in need, Pakistan’s southern plains have been inundated again, with some parts of Sindh swamped with more water than last summer.

Thousands of people are stranded on hills and roofs, with the government unable to meet more than 30 per cent of funds needed for emergency rescue and relief efforts, it said in a joint conference with the UN in Islamabad.

The UN said its assessment showed that nearly every district in Sindh had seen flooding, as well as five districts of neighbouring Baluchistan province, killing 342 people and injuring 633 others so far. The $357 million appeal is only to garner initial “life-saving assistance to the most affected people” said the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, Timo Pakkala.

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