Asia-PacificFeaturedIranOthersPakistanWest AsiaWorld News

Iran to send more aid to Pakistan

The Islamic Republic of Iran has expressed its readiness to send more humanitarian and medical aid to the 20 million people affected by Pakistan’s worst ever floods.

The Iranian government will send its 10-million-dollar aid package including food, medicine, blankets and tents after the United Nations called on world leaders to speed up assistance to the devastated country, an informed source was quoted by Radio Pashto as saying.

Iran will dispatch the second aid shipment to Pakistan in addition to the aid given by the Iranian people to the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation (IKRF) to be sent to the flood-ravaged country.

Friday prayers leaders of different Iranian cities called on the people to fulfill their humanitarian duties and provide more help to the Muslim neighboring state.

A group of representatives from the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei including Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and a top cleric Mohammad Hassan Rahimian arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to get a close view of the disaster and assess the specific needs of the flood-stricken people.

More than 1,600 people have lost their lives and 20 million have been affected by the recent flooding that hit Pakistan.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that more than 650,000 families, whose homes were wiped out by the floods, remain without basic shelter.

Only 54.5 percent of the 460-million-dollar UN appeal to help flood-stricken Pakistanis has been gathered so far.

Iran, which was among the first countries to send aid to Pakistan, has so far dispatched 140 tons of humanitarian aid to the flood-stricken country.

The World Health Organization has warned of the threat of epidemics in flood-hit areas. The WHO fears up to 300,000 could contract cholera in the aftermath of the devastating floods.

Relief agencies warn that aid is too slow to arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes in the flood-hit regions of Pakistan.

Back to top button