Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the international community to support Pakistan to cope with the devastation caused by unprecedented floods that have inundated one-third of the country.
UN chief’s briefing
At a briefing at the UN headquarters, answering a question about his expectations from the upcoming January 9 international conference in Geneva aimed at mobilising the international community to support the flood-hit country for reconstruction work, he said: “There is a huge responsibility of the international community to support Pakistan.”
The UN chief will co-host the conference with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The devastating floods have killed around 1,700 people and affected 33 million in Pakistan.
“I am totally committed to doing everything possible to mobilize the international community to support Pakistan, ” he told his year-end press conference at UN the headquarters in New York. “I’ve been in Pakistan immediately after the floods have occurred,” he said, adding, “I was dramatically impressed by what I’ve seen.
“Three times the area of my own country flooded, terrible loss of crops and animals and of houses and of life, for the population of Sindh and Baluchistan, an absolutely devastating situation, and I believe the international community has a strong responsibility to support Pakistan that has contributed in a very minimal way to climate change.”
The secretary-general said it aimed to mobilize the needed resources in the upcoming Geneva conference fully. “I was also in recent contact with the IMF and World Bank that hopefully will also be from these two institutions, meaningful action, and the Pakistani people, deserves and needs a strong expression of international solidarity,” the UN chief added.
