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UAE sends four more planeloads, first flight from US brings flood aid to Pakistan

UAE sends four more planeloads, first flight from US brings flood aid to Pakistan
Pakistani officials unload flood relief goods from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Pakistan in Karachi on September 9, 2022. (@uaeembassyisb/Twitter)
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Updated 09 September 2022

UAE sends four more planeloads, first flight from US brings flood aid to Pakistan

UAE sends four more planeloads, first flight from US brings flood aid to Pakistan
  • UNSG Antonio Guterres is also on a visit to Pakistan, where he will be travelling to flood-hit areas to assess damages
  • Deadly floods have so far killed 1,391 people in Pakistan, causing massive infrastructure damages since monsoon began

ISLAMABAD: Another four planes delivered flood relief goods from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Pakistan, while the South Asian country received the first planeload of aid from the United States (US) on Thursday, the Emirati embassy and a US official said, as the death toll from devastating rains and deluges neared 1,400. 

Unprecedented monsoon rains and melting glaciers in the north have triggered massive floods in Pakistan since mid-June, which have caused widespread death and destruction in the South Asian country. 

The floods have killed at least 1,391 people and affected more than 33 million as well as washed away roads, bridges and standing crops in the country, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The southern Sindh province is worst hit and accounts for 577 of these deaths. 

After the latest delivery on Thursday, the UAE embassy said, the number of relief flights operated by the UAE to Pakistan has reached 31. 

"Within the directives of UAE's wise leadership to operate flights to provide relief for floods & torrential rains affectees in Pakistan, 4 relief planes arrived in Karachi loaded with tons of food, medical supplies and shelters, bringing the number of planes to 31 till date," the embassy said on Twitter. 

On Thursday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told an American diplomat, who was visiting Islamabad to assess the damages, the world must step up its fight against climate change to avoid more deadly flooding in the impoverished nation. 

"This is the first US military C-17 to land in Pakistan on the government of Pakistan's request," said Samantha Power, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) official, in a video from an airport runway in southern Pakistan. 

"It has just offloaded equipment and the other logistic stock here in Sindh province." 

Power said the US military would be providing around 300,000 people in Sindh with shelter equipment, which was being transported from Dubai where USAID had it warehoused. 

USAID earlier requested the US Department of Defense to establish an air bridge to help it reach flood-affected communities in Pakistan. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was also visiting Pakistan on Friday to travel to flood-hit areas to witness the damages. 

Guterres less than two weeks ago issued an appeal for $160 million in emergency funding to help millions affected by record-breaking floods in Pakistan.Â