Islamabad, Sept 23, (dpa/GNA) – Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has warned that “all hell will break loose” if the gap in international humanitarian aid to his country after catastrophic flooding, is not plugged immediately.
Sharif’s warning comes, as the death toll from months of deluge and waterborne diseases, nears 2,000 on Friday.
Around two dozen more people died in the southern province of Sindh, where large swathes of land remained under water for a third month, bringing the death toll to 1,960.
At least 20 children were among the dead, mostly due to drowning and some due to waterborne diseases, the national disaster agency and the provincial health department said on Friday.
The floods that were triggered by record monsoon rains since mid-June have killed 1, 596 people, more than a third of them children.
At least 364 more deaths have been caused by the outbreak of deadly diseases like malaria, cholera, dengue fever and diarrhoea, the provincial health department said.
At least 2.95 million people fell ill in Sindh in the floods, which have affected more than 33 million people.
Sharif said there was a “yawning gap” between what was required and what was being delivered, warning of an imminent threat of epidemics.
“God forbid this happens, all hell will break loose,” Sharif said in an interview in New York, where he was set to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
Hollywood star and activists Angelina Jolie, has urged the world to help Pakistan, in a visit to the flood-affected areas.
“The destruction is shocking. In my whole life, I have never seen anything like this. Families sleep in the open sky and lost everything in the floods.”
GNA