Pakistan flood disaster deepens:

UN appeals for help

PAKISTAN: The United Nations is launching an appeal to help the millions of people hit by Pakistan’s worst ever floods which have cut off swathes of the country and raised fears of a food crisis.

A UN official said the disaster has affected almost 14 million people, eclipsing the scale of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, as the deadly floodwaters sweep south and rescuers battle to bring aid to survivors.

“We will soon issue an... appeal for several hundred million dollars to respond to immediate needs,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon told a press conference Monday. “I appeal for donors to generously support Pakistan at this difficult time.” The Pakistani government and UN officials have appealed for more urgent relief efforts to cope with the catastrophe.

The entire northwestern Swat valley, where Pakistan fought a major campaign to flush out Taliban insurgents last year, was cut off at the weekend as were parts of the country’s breadbasket in Punjab and Sindh provinces.

“This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake,” Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP.

He said the 13.8 million affected outstripped the more than three million hit by the 2005 earthquake, five million in the 2004 tsunami and the three million affected by the Haiti earthquake in January this year. Sukkur, Tuesday, AFP