ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, on Thursday thanked Kuwait’s ambassador to Pakistan for the Gulf nation’s support after recent floods in Pakistan that have killed at least 1,700 people and left 33 million scrambling to survive.
Last month, the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, had reported that the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs was collaborating with 27 local charities to provide urgent relief to Pakistan flood survivors. Other Gulf states like the UAE and Saudi Arabia have also sent thousands of tons of relief goods to Pakistan via land and air routes.
“Ambassador of Kuwait, H.E. Nassar Abdulrahman J Almutairi, called on Minister of State Hina Rabbani Khar at the Ministry,” the foreign office said. “MOS thanked Ambassador for Kuwait’s support during recent floods in Pakistan.”
Last month, Kuwaiti charities in a joint statement said Pakistan was “witnessing one of the worst humanitarian disasters.”
“Without urgent access to medical aid, food, water, and shelter, those affected are most exposed to grave risks,” the statement added, calling for more aid for the flood-ravaged nation.
The calls for aid from around the world come as hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who fled their homes are living in government camps set up to accommodate them, or simply out in the open.
Stagnant floodwaters, spread over hundreds of square kilometers (miles), may take two to six months to recede in some places, officials say, and have already led to widespread cases of skin and eye infections, diarrhea, malaria, typhoid and dengue fever.
The crisis hits Pakistan at a particularly bad time. With its economy in crisis, propped up by loans from the International Monetary Fund, it does not have the resources to cope with the longer-term effects of the flooding without international aid.
