ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has offered help to Nepal, as the death toll from devastating floods and landslides in the country surged to 170 on Monday.
Rescuers in Nepal recovered dozens of bodies from buses and other vehicles that were buried in landslides near the capital Katmandu on Sunday, with various media outlets reporting that the death toll has surged to 170.
While floods and landslides caused by torrential rains are common across the region during the monsoon period, weather officials in the Himalayan nation attribute these rainstorms to climate change and a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal.
In a message on social media platform X, Sharif said he was “deeply saddened” by Nepal’s devastating floods.
“Having suffered calamitous floods ourselves in 2022, Pakistan stands in full solidarity with Nepal and is ready to extend any help necessary,” he wrote on Sunday.
Separately, Pakistan’s foreign office expressed solidarity with Nepal as floods raged in the South Asian country.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all who have lost loved ones and livelihood in the floods,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement on Sunday. “Pakistan stands in solidarity with the government and people of Nepal in this moment of tragedy.”
The Pakistani prime minister was referring to the torrential monsoon rains in 2022 when unusually heavy rains and the melting of glaciers triggered flash floods across the country. Over 1,700 people were killed, critical infrastructure was damaged and large swathes of crops were damaged and washed away. Pakistan estimated losses to be over $30 billion from the floods.
Heavy rains triggered flash floods and killed nearly 350 in Pakistan this monsoon season that began in late June, according to the country’s disaster management authority. Pakistan and other countries in South Asia have seen erratic changes in weather patterns in recent years that scientists have blamed on climate change.
